


Just an experiment.

by apogrcpha



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, Married Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Past Child Abuse, Past Drug Use, Slow Burn, johnlock au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-09-23 08:08:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9647474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apogrcpha/pseuds/apogrcpha
Summary: A social experiment where a certain company has made it possible for single people to sign themselves up. The experiment is that these people will be matched with someone of their orientation and will be forced to live with that person for a whole month as though they are married, everything about their regular life is changed and they have to follow a new work schedule and a small set of rules.John has had more than a few unsuccessful relationship. The best one in recent history was of just two weeks. With a little convincing from his mate Mike he decides to join, what could go wrong?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So my first language isn't English, I don't consider myself an expert at it which is why there might be some grammar mistakes. If anyone would be willing to beta-read this I'd be very grateful :)

John Watson sat in his car, a sigh escaped his lips as his foot rested on the gas pedal, he had turned the car off just to be sure. He could turn away, turn his keys and press the gas pedal and never go inside there, never think back to what he could’ve done but he knew he wouldn’t do that, he couldn’t get himself to do it. He cursed Mike for talking him into this; of course it was a bad idea, who found it bright to even come up with the idea of this whole ‘experiment’ as it wasn’t that significant or anything.

Mike convinced him he should do this, it’ll be fine was something he told him, you can pull out if it’s really that horrible. One day Mike Stamford, the genius he is, decided that he should show this to John, a social experiment. Taking people who are single or not married and paring them up with different people they likely had never met before, they would live together for a month like they were married, together and their schedules adjusted. Mike convinced John it would be good to get experience as all the relationships he previously held all went down the drain and it happened more than once that he mistook a girlfriend for a different one; it’ll be a good change for you.

The air was biting cold once John left his car and he immediately noticed he should’ve really dressed up better than the thin mid-season jacket he was wearing. With a sigh he crossed the street and glanced up the building, he imagined it had maybe fifteen floors, just higher than a flat one of his girlfriends had lived in that happened to be twelve floors. He stepped inside and welcomed the heat that was radiating all around him.

“uh..Hi..’’ The receptionist abruptly stopped, his eyes slightly annoyed yet a smile on his face which was forced, something a toddler could see. John awkwardly smiled. “I’m John Watson, I uh.. I have an appointment.’’ John was unsure what to call it, appointment wasn’t even right, nor was meeting or any word he could think of, he wasn’t even sure what really was going to happen.

His fingers hovered over the keyboard and he stared at John for a while before his fingers connected with the keyboard and made a rather harsh sound. John patiently waited, avoiding eye contact because of the slight tension and awkwardness that was present in the room. The clicking of a mouse and tapping of keys stopped and a pass was shuffled towards him.

“They’re waiting on the thirteenth floor, you just show this to the security there and they’ll let you in.’’ He explained, his voice obviously bored and John nodded with a polite smile before heading into the elevator, he was quite surprised that there were also a few floors underground, he paid it no mind and pressed the ‘thirteen’ button. He patiently waited inside the elevator and a ding popped alongside with the door opening. He stepped outside to be met by nothing yet.

He imagined what he saw was a staff room, a soda machine, snack machine, a coffee machine and different beverages, the room was full of sofas and a few chairs which looked rather comfortable, John walked along the side of the room and found a door where a security guard was standing which gave John some comfort that he actually went to the right place, he wouldn’t be surprise if he was lead to the wrong floor.

John showed the security guard his pass, the woman inspected it for a few second, running over a few key-details before nodding and grabbing a slightly different pass of her own to slide the door open, he nodded a thanks and stepped inside. The room was light because of the windows which made up the right wall, the table in the middle of the room was massive and made of wood. It was a meeting room, at least thirty chairs present which seemed of fairly high quality, the room was already somewhat filled by people, an amount of twenty. Some conversations were so loud he wondered if he just hadn’t noticed them before, others were so quiet he was convinced he would never be able to hear what they were saying, even if he stood right in their face.

John awkwardly sat down, recognizing literally no one and mostly kept to himself, getting his phone out as a way to distract him.

Are you sure will work out? -J

Positive -M

How? -J

I just know, don’t forget to tell me who the lucky lady or gentleman is ;) -M

I can’t believe I’m doing this -J

Someone loudly cleared his throat and John put his phone away into a pocket of his jacket, at the head of the table stood three men and two women, all of them very professionally dressed and he assumed they were the people who came up with this or are the organisation their representatives or such.

“Please everybody, take a seat.’’ The man in the middle spoke before taking his own, everybody followed suit and sat down on the quite comfortable grey chairs. To his right sat a lady, she seemed just as old as he was and she had auburn hair and dark brown eyes, whilst he definitely noticed her she definitely didn’t notice him, still engrossed in the conversation she was having with the girl sitting next to her. To his left sat another man, he seemed just over thirty with his hair neatly combed back and John saw he wore quite some expensive clothing, something that made John slightly question what he was doing here.

“Now, I assume you know why you are here or what you are doing here, if you are unsure, this is the place where your partners for the coming month will be assigned. All your worries have been taken care of, trust us. We have talked to your bosses and made up different schedules so you both work part-time, this might result in a slightly smaller paycheck but that’s a risk. If the changed amount is rather fatal, say cut in half, than you just need to notify us and we can make an arrangement.’’ His voice was confident, calm and collected. Something that seemed to make everybody a bit more at ease.

“Now, we have already assigned you all to someone of your orientation. The places you will be living in are listed there as well alongside the form you filled out only then with the information of your partner, a quick way to get to know them a bit better. Are there any questions so far?’’ He asked and the man to John’s left raised his hand and cleared his throat.

“Well… What if it goes completely wrong?’’ John’s first impressions were blown away, the man was anxious and very nervous, he was fidgeting. Somehow John got the impression he was quite a confident fellow, he looked rather sharp but then John realized that was him trying to make himself more confident and once he started to speak that obviously dropped.

“There will be weekly check-ups, if someone is in any physical danger or has a mental health condition they can pull out if it becomes too much for them. All you need to do is call us, someone will come to escort you to your own house and everything will change back to how it was before you started this program.’’ The man explained calmly and the nervous man nodded in reply and looked down at his lap as he noticed everybody their eyes were on him, something he was obviously very uncomfortable with.

“Are you alright?’’ John whispered, he looked up in surprise but nodded. “Yes, thank you.’’

“Now, if there aren’t any other questions the lists will be given to you all.’’ There was a moment of silence before four of the five started to give everybody the lists they had to fill in only it was of the other person, honestly it looked more like a case file you saw in police movies. John got his from one of the ladies and felt a slight anxiety, he could hardly just stop because he didn’t like how the person looked or something alike but the chance was rather big something like that could happen, it wasn’t that he only cared about appearances but it was still a quite big part.

John wasn’t too surprise when the first obvious thing was that he got assigned a man. Mike had continuously been nagging him to not put in straight and rather bisexual, John found it a bit ridiculous at first but Mike made some valid arguments and John also did it to please him and he imagined if it wouldn’t work out, which wouldn’t surprise him, at least there were quite a lot of chances he’d find a new friend which Mike also thought he needed, John had a rather small social circle as he didn’t enjoy going out as much, he had friends but he was far from a social butterfly.

“Sherlock Holmes.’’ He mumbled to himself and once he scanned over it he had multiple thoughts, one was that he felt like it would be a torture to live with someone who was a lot taller than he was, second he wondered why someone who said he was asexual would do this, and the third made him look around the room to find the man on the right side of the table, staring out of the window as though this wasn’t even to the slightest interest of him and John looked back and started to read through all the details.

Once John finished it he was unsure how he truly felt, he was rather conflicted. The man was definitely interesting, claiming to be a sociopath which made John even more conflicted. John noticed he was quite nicely dressed and as his profession listed ‘consulting detective’ he imagined it was something very exclusive, well-paying and having to do with crime scenes which had somewhat interested him. Furthermore John imagined the first few conversations wouldn’t go that great if someone describes themselves as rude, impolite and eccentric, it did awaken a lot of curiosity though which is why John’s feelings were so conflicting.

“If everybody could please leave and rest for a while in the staff room you passed on your way in, we will just be sorting out a few things when it comes to commendations. We’ll be with you shortly and then you are all able to leave together.’’ One of the females spoke and everybody got up and left the room within a few minutes. John got himself a simple cup of water and sat down on the sofa, staring out the windows.

In the corner of his eye he saw something he couldn’t quite identify but out of habit he instantly reached for it, it flew at a rather great pace but John managed to catch it to reveal a set of keys and the pitcher just so happen to be Sherlock Holmes.

“Great reflexes. You’ll do.’’ John furrowed his brow as he glanced at the set of keys which looked like any other keys, he imagined they were for an apartment seeing as the situation they were in. 

“I’ll do?’’ He asked.

“The keys, apartment is 221B Baker street, nice place in the center of London, it happens to be mine so there is no need for furniture.’’ The man replied swiftly, half of the room was watching by now which made John a uncomfortable with everything going on. He stood up and was about to laugh at how this all was going.

“We just met.’’ John said, uncertain of what he wanted to say and this seemed the most logical of the responses he came up with. 

“Yes.’’ Replied Sherlock. “But you also happen to be able to know most general things you want to know because of the stack of papers that’s next to you. We can skip over the introductions don’t you think? There’s a taxi waiting downstairs.’’ 

John chuckled. “So.. We just met, I only know you’re name and we’re already leaving.’’ Sherlock seemed rather bored and unfazed by the statement and many questions John had. 

“Yes, problem?’’ Somehow, John didn’t.

-8-

“Go on, you’ve got questions. You’re trying to focus but rather obviously can’t.’’ Sherlock commented as John relaxed a bit behind the wheel as the traffic light was red. It was a wonder to him how stubborn the man was but in the end he did decided to go along in John’s car, John could only understand the point of not wanting to get in because it was a rather small car and John wasn’t completely sure if he could even fit his legs in.

“Consulting detective?’’ John asked as he hit the gas pedal again when the light switched to green. Slightly surprising, Sherlock was right that John wasn’t able to completely focus, there were a lot of things nagging him about his flatmate for the coming month. “I invented the job, when the police are out of their debts, which they always are, they consult me.’’ He replied in the same stoic voice as he ever held.

“The police don’t consult amateurs.’’ John replied and Sherlock nodded in response. 

“I know you’re a doctor, fresh out of college with a new job. You wanted to go to the army but a last minute decision changed your mind, you have army reflexes which means you trained yourself for that but something changed, judging by your phone it’s your family, you took out your phone and you aren’t quite comfortable with it, it isn’t a new phone though, which means you likely got it as a gift from someone you’re close with, you don’t have the biggest social circle or you wouldn’t participate in this. So family, someone who tried to convince you not to do it and here you are.’’ He commented without looking up from his phone, John just stared out at his road.

“You could’ve read that.’’ Only when John had said it he realized how stupid it was. “I imagine you hadn’t listed your phone type, where you got it from and your past aspirations.’’ He replied, again without looking up and John wondered how busy someone truly could be with texting.

“That was amazing.’’ John finally said, that was all he really could come up with.

“Think so?’’ Sherlock asked, sounding slightly uncertain. “Yeah, of course.’’ John replied.

“That’s not what most people say.’’ He replied.

“What do most people say?’’

“Piss off.’’


	2. 2.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you'll enjoy it :) The plan is that every chapter will be a day in their life with an epilogue and if you haven't noticed, I've incorporated quite a bit of dialogue from ASiP and will probably continue to include a lot of dialogue from season 1 with or without realizing it because they've just met in that season.

“This is quite a nice place.’’ John admitted once they got out of the car and arrived, next to the apartments there was a little café, Sherlock nodded as he opened the door and inside they were greeted by a lady seemed somewhere around sixty, she had a smile on her face.

“You must be John.’’ She said and he nodded as the two shook hands and shared a hug, she was very nice. “This is Mrs. Hudson, our landlady.’’ Sherlock introduced her before she got the chance and John nodded, swiftly after that he followed Sherlock up the stairs and concluded, even though not having studies that medical area, that he very likely was a sociopath or had behaviour alike.

The apartment was quite nice, a huge mess, but nice. A few things that immediately stuck out were the two arm chairs, skull painting, and actual skull, knife which was stuck in the fireplace, the bull’s head and the notable amount of mugs that were littered around. John ended up laughing as he thought he was messy but this was extreme, even for him. Curiously he went over and started to flip through a stack of papers on the table where ten mugs were resting, ten stacks of paper, a laptop and books were littered around. With a flip through he found that they had to do something with crimes and police.

Looking around the place a bit more he curiously looked at the massive bookshelf, some books were a bit more obscure than others but overall it was non-fiction which John could’ve guessed, there were some fiction books that looked rather old, and he didn’t recognize one of them but John in general rarely read and if he did it were popular books. “A skull.’’ John commented whilst Sherlock was managing to almost get all the mugs and bring them to the sink.

“Hmm.. Oh yeah, old friend… Well, when I say friend-‘’ John was extremely happy to have Mrs. Hudson interrupt wherever that was going, curiously John raised the skull whilst Mrs. Hudson was scolding Sherlock to find a packet of cigarettes hidden underneath, he shook his head before putting it back.

“You smoke.’’ John commented as he sat down in one of the armchairs, pulling his phone out and sending a quick text to Mike. “Boredom.’’ Sherlock replied when he walked back inside and John was rather confused.

“Boredom?’’ John said, sounding slightly offended almost. 

“Yes, boredom. Don’t you lot ever get bored? Of course you don’t, you’re stupid just like the rest of the world, don’t be offended. Also, don’t expect anything romantic.’’ Sherlock said as though it wasn’t obvious yet anything romantic wasn’t going to happen, John just nodded as Sherlock said down in the seat opposite of him.

John thanked Mrs. Hudson as she gave him a cup of tea. “Just this once, I’m not your housekeeper.’’ She said and John nodded, taking that into mental note as he felt like she could definitely have the ability to do them some damage, one of the things he considered was starving them as he had a habit of cursing at the empty insides of his fridge and his flatmate didn’t seem like the person who would continuously get groceries. 

“Right, so.. what happens now?’’ John asked, he wasn’t sure in all honesty. The obvious romance factor was taken away from the whole experiment or project but it still meant he was going to live with a stranger as his flatmate for the next month which he didn’t necessarily mind as long as he knew something about the mystery that is Sherlock Holmes.

“Now? You could go get your stuff as you’ll be forced to live here the next month and beside that, I dunno. You’ve just graduated, go out and do whatever people do.’’ Sherlock said, his voice sounded like he obviously was thinking about something else but interestingly he was staring directly at John as though he was thinking about John but not what he had said which made John wonder what he could possibly be thinking about that was related to John.

“What about you?’’ A ‘hmmm’ came in reply. “What will you be doing?’’ John asked curiously, he wondered how it would work with him being a ‘consulting detective’ as John imagined that didn’t exactly have hours. “Me, I’ll be doing what I always do, solve crimes.’’ He simply stated in reply and John nodded, sipping his tea.

“So this is it, I’ll sit here, you’ll run off from time to time to solve crimes.’’ Sherlock just nodded and John took a massive gulp, almost finishing it completely.

-8-

“So, you ever heard of Sherlock Holmes?’’ John curiously asked, Mike seemed to think for quite a while and he didn’t respond with a clear yes or no. John sipped the drink he had ordered and then Mike answered.  
“I think. I might’ve heard of him somewhere at Bart’s but I’m not sure, what does he do?’’ Mike asked, Mike was ecstatic to hear that John, as he had hoped, gotten partnered with a man but the follow up was not like what he had imagined, still it seemed to be very interesting, even if it wouldn’t be romantic.

“Well, he says he’s a consulting detective.’’ John said and Mike nodded, his whole expression changed and he suddenly seemed to come to a realization, John gave a curious look. “Yes, I met him once, he was in a lab. We talked, he was able to tell my whole life story, it was weird but he was nice…ish.’’ Mike said and the two of them shared a laugh as John quite obviously had an experience very like Mike.

“Well, he was quite nice actually, we had a very interesting conversation.’’ Mike’s phone rang, a few beeps which stopped him from continuing the conversation and he gave John a solemn look which he recognized as ‘I need to get back to work.’ “If you ever end up seeing a crime scene-‘’ 

“Why in god’s name would I ever see a crime scene?’’ John cut in, Mike shrugged but had a rather smug smile on his face which made John awfully suspicious. “If, listen, you ever end up seeing a crime scene you should tell me about it, tell me how it was to solve the crime and everything.’’ John just gave a nod and wave Mike off and remained there for a while, sipping his drink.

He wondered what made Mike so convinced that he would see a crime scene, after all Mike had only met Sherlock once and John wasn’t sure that you could determine what a person could do by simply meeting them once, Sherlock would probably be able to do that but John was very convinced that Mike wasn’t Sherlock, Mike wasn’t at all like him and he wondered how the two got on friendly terms but decided not to waste too much energy on it as he could just as Mike later.

-8-

John sighed as he finally got his own room sorted out, once he got back with the boxes he had Mrs. Hudson told him Sherlock was out and was rather surprised they needed two rooms but didn’t say much, just pointed to what room would be his and he moved in. He didn’t have that much, most were still books from his studies, a massive DVD collection he proudly organised again on the one shelf he had in his room, his clothes, an old handheld gaming console, some random things he owned and his laptop.

He let himself fall down on his bed and once he did pulled his laptop up to his lap and very curiously searched ‘Sherlock Holmes’ as he seemed to be rather proud of the title consulting detective, it seemed to be a thing no one in the world had heard of and Google confirmed that, very little results came up, a few photos in which he did recognize Sherlock, they seemed to be from a year or so ago and linked to a closed Facebook profile. It was of someone John had never heard of and he imaged Sherlock was still somewhat normal so maybe a friend, friend seemed a very wrong word but he decided to use it, from Uni. What did come up quite a bit though was a certain figure called ‘Mycroft Holmes’ someone who seemed to be a bit young to be in the government and John surprisingly had never heard of, searching that name mainly resulted in different news sites talking about how someone this young could be in such a position already, John made a note to ask Sherlock about this whenever he was going to come home.

As his curiosity grew about Sherlock he realized he had been keeping himself from properly reading it, not scanning to see if the person was male or female, their age and job, he actually hadn’t looked at anything besides that, nor did he have the chance. He got up and looked around and found it fairly quickly, resting in one of his boxes and he sat down before opening it.

He remembered what he had to fill in, it was really like a dating profile which made John very curious what he had filled in, or someone else had for him, as he seemed to be someone who was brutally honest but also had quite an ego and was rather eccentric, all John was sure of there wouldn’t be any typical ‘I love sports.’ 

It started fairly simple and ordinary, his name which, slightly surprising, was ‘William Sherlock Scott Holmes’. The second thing that followed was also rather plain, birth date and age. John almost skipped over the first few questions as they were really simple and anyone answers them the same but he decided not to, even though it was so simple and something he could see himself it was nice to have a solid ground of knowledge on him.

Eventually the first spark of interest came which was when he came around ‘sexual orientation’ which was followed by the answer ‘asexual’. It was something John had heard of and read about and it didn’t completely surprise him, which was only if what he thought it was happens to be right. Still, he wondered how the people their dealt with it, this wasn’t all about sex rather relationships but it was still a less straight-forward orientation to deal with.

Of course the famous ‘Profession’ came with answer ‘Consulting detective’. Again he ended up wondering how the people who organised this dealt with that, all the things he seemed to list were fairly normal except for a few which were more than a bit out of ordinary and he was curious what they decided to do with it. John chuckled once he read the next subject to find out that, of course the man who can read your life story, can speak a few languages fluently and in general had a knowledge of most common languages, though that is really general, he could understand it and translate but not speak nor write. It impressed John he was even able to learn all of that, John had a rather hard time with French but finished it with a mere C. 

Everything that followed was a lot less interesting, hobbies included some obscure things he imagined Sherlock would do with him being a detective and the Violin wasn’t a surprise as he noticed it on his way in, the rest were mostly things he had noticed or seen already and with that he threw it back into the box and sprawled on his back, staring at the crème ceiling. He’d have to work again tomorrow which was kind of nice as he didn’t have much else to do besides that, the recent months were consumed by job applications and studies which was at the cost of some friends, well John had met them once and they were all hammered so how much of friends they truly were was very doubtful.

-8-

In the hours that Sherlock was gone John had decided to entertain himself with a few films, it started pouring outside, and talking to Mrs. Hudson who seemed to know Sherlock rather well and she was very sweet. John heard the door open whilst he started the take out he decided to order, not wanting to burden Mrs. Hudson too much and there was no food in the fridge, whilst watching the fourth season of Doctor Who.

“You took your time.’’ John commented and turned around to face Sherlock, he didn’t seem that different from this morning, his hair just a bit more dishevelled and John noticed a small patch of dried up blood. 

“Lot of chases.’’ Sherlock commented, his voice absent and his eyes were scanning all over the room.

“Dinner?’’ He asked, his voice’s attention was back and John furrowed his brow in response, he can’t have missed the rather obvious take out standing on the small coffee table in front of his chair. “Oh, I know you don’t like it or you’d have finished it by now. There isn’t the slightest scent or any condensation on the windows, the only sign you ordered take out is the cold take out standing there.’’ He said and John had to admit it was true, the take out was less than he hoped it was but he would’ve eaten it.

“Fine.’’ John grumbled and pulled his jacket on that he discarded over the armchair. Sherlock had a small grin on his lips as John stuffed the set of keys and phone in his pocket before following Sherlock downstairs. Once they were outside John expected them to get in some sort of a vehicle but Sherlock just kept walking, John felt the cold air biting and realized he should’ve seen this coming. He let out a deep sigh before picking up pace and continued following Sherlock to whatever restaurant they were going to.

-8-

The two of them arrived at a small restaurant called Angelo’s but it was completely filled which made John doubt they’d be able to eat anything. With rather low hopes he stepped inside and John appreciated the warmth that washed over him, of course Sherlock didn’t seem too bothered with the cold at all but he also wore a scarf and a coat John knew was definitely warmer than his, just by the looks of it was obvious.

“Sherlock!’’ John was surprised at the warm greeting his companion got. It was a man he imagined worked here or maybe even ran the place, the two shared a sort of half hand-shake half hug which was very surprising to John, just the thought of Sherlock having actual contact with someone was a rather foreign idea to him. 

“And you must be John.’’ John gave a quick nod as the two shook hands and John started t wonder how long this was planned because otherwise this man definitely wouldn’t know who he was and that he was coming. “This is Angelo.’’ Sherlock explained at John’s obvious confusion and now John’s assumption that he ran the place was confirmed but that hadn’t scratched the surface yet of all the questions he had for Sherlock.

“Anything on the house, for you and your date.’’ Angelo said whilst he lead them to a table and John was about to protest but stopped himself, unsure if he really should. The idea was that in theory Sherlock was his date, if he still understood what really was going on, but if he added everything that had happened into the equation he was very unsure what he and Sherlock really were so he just let it be. The two of them sat down and Angelo lit a candle.

“This man got me off a murder charge.’’ Angelo said to John which explained how the two knew each other and what exactly was going on, also why they were here. John still felt quite some confusion as this all seemed rather random for a man who calls a skull a friend, then again John decided not to question it too much as he was starving and the smell that came from the kitchen was a rather attractive one.

“One of the first things I did, a few months ago. There was a particular vicious triple murder and I proved Angelo was in a completely different part of town, house-breaking.’’ Sherlock explained and John just didn’t even try to wrap his head around it all, he had so many questions he wanted to ask and there were so many different things he was thinking about he decided to just not continue further with this subject, he just accepted it and stared at the menu to find something to order, Sherlock didn’t seem to be going to eat at all.

“I’ll just leave you two to it.’’ There was a particularly smug expression John couldn’t get out of his mind as Angelo walked away.

A few minutes later a different waiter came and John ordered his food. “Aren’t you going to eat anything?’’ He asked and Sherlock didn’t seem to be listening, after a few seconds he seemed to come to the realization John had said something and nodded. He wasn’t even surprised as it was rather obvious to him Sherlock wasn’t the simplest of people and he wouldn’t be surprised if he found out more different things like this which were really weird.

“So, why are we here?’’ A few minutes had passed and John finally got his dinner when he decided to ask this. There were multiple reasons to it but it was just that he wasn’t able to see Sherlock as the person to just spontaneously decide to have dinner with someone, or to just go out for no reason, in general it was weird John was having dinner but Sherlock not.

“We’re having dinner, is it really that hard to see?’’ Sherlock replied and John took another bite, even though the whole situation was weird the dinner was definitely better than the take-out he had ordered because he was actually enjoying this, and it was still hot. “No but you.. You just don’t seem like the person to spontaneously be nice to someone.’’ Sherlock’s lips turned slightly up.

“Well, It’s kind of to make up for leaving you the whole time and you really weren’t enjoying the take-out so just enjoy your very late dinner.’’ John chuckled but did it anyway, taking a few more bites, it was really enjoyable and he really had to remember this place.

“You’ve got questions, go on.’’ Sherlock plainly said and John nodded, he finished eating and cleared his throat which made him able to think for a while what to first ask, he decided to land on the thing he was most interested about which was the man who sat in front of him and he decided after he had asked that he would move on to the mysterious man who was called Mycroft.

“Ever had a girlfriend?’’ The reply was ‘no’ and it seemed almost out of instinct. “Boyfriend?’’ John continued and another ‘no’ came with the same voice and same speed and he glanced down at his plate and just realized how stupid the questions were, of course he wouldn’t, unattached, that’s a shocker.

“You’re unattached, of course.’’ John eventually said.

“Dull, it’s all dull. Normal lives, don’t understand how people deal with it, isn’t it boring.’’ Sherlock replied to John’s statement and he was surprised but at the same time wasn’t.

“I looked you up, found a few things, a blog with no page and well, a lot of articles about someone called Mycroft Holmes. Is that your brother?’’ A silence fell across the two of them and John imagined that was the answer to his question, a definitive yes but he imagined they were far from the brothers who spent every second of the day together, kind of what happened to Harriet and their parents but John didn’t like to ponder about that too much.

“Arch-enemy.’’ He replied after a while.

“People don’t have arch-enemies in real life.’’ John stated, if he was willing to say arch-enemy that definitely meant that their relationship was likely worse than frozen.

“Like I said, dull.’’

-8-

Once they arrived home John watched some more crap telly and finished the season, almost shedding tears again. Honestly though, John wasn’t paying too much attention as Sherlock had captivated his attention most of the time. Sherlock had done an assortment of things, he started with reading a book which he got bored with after a short ten minutes, he moved over to his laptop and was furiously typing away for a good hour before he got up again and started pacing around the room. After that he continued and played his violin extremely loudly which made John put in his earbuds to still hear the dialogue, that was followed by a loud sigh and falling onto the couch and by then John had gotten slightly sick of him acting like a broody annoyed teenage and moved to his room to finish the last episode. After that he went into his bed and started sleeping.

He was still very curious and didn’t feel like this had given him much closure but it was interesting to see how Sherlock acted whilst he was watching a tv show, he basically acted as if John wasn’t there which would’ve been annoying if John wasn’t trying to watch a tv show which made it good so he could observe how Sherlock actually was and things he did.

John was quite excited for tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

John groaned as his alarm kept ringing, he imagined he would be ecstatic to go back to work as he had never worked there before, the plan was that he would start a week ago but the clinic was closed because of reasons he wasn’t too sure about but now he actually did have to go get up and work. Even though he could’ve gotten a higher job, and had the military as a sort of back-up plan, he quite liked the idea of starting out as a GP just because that was an easy way to build his resume, hospitals don’t hire someone who’s just fresh out of Uni with their working experience that one year he worked at a DIY store near his house and the part-time job he had while in Uni, that isn’t exactly the same as dealing with people who might need surgery.

Eventually he was able to get up and took a quick shower to wake him up. After that he dressed up and glanced at the clock, he had forty-five minutes before his work which meant that he had twenty-five minutes for a breakfast before he had to go to his work as the ride took twenty-minutes, ten longer than it did from his own flat.

He was surprised to find a plate with toast and eggs in the kitchen as he was filling his backpack with a different assortment of papers he had to take along, he wasn’t sure why anymore but he had to for some reason and it was useful to store a water bottle in there just because he didn’t have any change in his wallet. Once he did step inside the kitchen the quiet sound of Sherlock’s violin was something he heard in the background as he was still amazed at with how much skill he played the instruments even though John didn’t know too much about music.

He happily started eating the breakfast he imagined was maybe made by Mrs. Hudson but he wasn’t too sure and decided not to question it but just to enjoy it as John was far from a good cook, he was able to make an egg but that were probably the extent of his cooking abilities without instructions. It was kind of pathetic and he knew that too but he never really saw the need to learn it as he made enough from working in a constantly buzzing library to buy a lot of microwave meals, it was cheap and not a lot of effort.

He finished and still had five minutes left. He checked his bag a last time before pulling his jacket on and slinging it over his shoulder. Sherlock was still playing the violin as John opened the door, Sherlock was facing the window and despite that he looked rather grounded he seemed light on his feet, it was dark outside which is why the lights were on; Sherlock’s shadow was cast to the right side, covering almost half of the apartment.

“I’m going to work, I’ll be back at 4.’’ John said and he stood there for a few seconds, awaiting response from Sherlock which he didn’t receive, of course. With that John left after a few seconds, he said goodbye to Mrs. Hudson who was cleaning her kitchen counter and got into his freezing car.

-8-

John sighed out of relief when the clock turned one, in between people he of course had different breaks but they were of various length but now he had his proper break which was twenty minutes. It was certainly interesting, his first week or so was meant for him to be a replacement for GP’s who were sick or so and after that it’s the idea that he’s going to become an actual GP for people and he enjoyed just having random people but he imagined it would be quite nice to have a more consistent schedule as he now didn’t really have one, if someone was sick they’d just drop all their patients into his schedule.

He got up and checked his backpocket for his wallet and left the building once he was sure he had his wallet with him. Despite the amount of time he had left he had forgotten that it would be useful to take something to eat with him but luckily there were multiple shops around. He got himself a muffin and a sausage roll which he realized weren’t the healthiest of his options but they seemed the most appealing and he very honestly couldn’t care less.

“Thank you.’’ He said hurriedly, he decided it was probably better to eat in the place that was now his office as it was a lot warmer there. He left the bakery and got back fairly quickly. Once he was sitting behind his desk again he pulled his phone out and saw texts from an unknown number.

-Got any plans tonight? –SH

John stared at it for a few seconds before realizing that it was Sherlock who had texted him and the question wasn’t even on his mind as he was wondering how Sherlock even got his number, he had never given it, that was for sure.

-No, but how do you know my number? -John 

-Easy –SH

-Isn’t relevant though. –SH

And that is where the conversation stopped, John sighed as he took a bite of the muffin. He couldn’t believe this was actually happening, he was living with someone who would describe himself as a sociopath, had figured out a part of his life by looking at him and now magically had his phone number. It was obviously not normal and there was a lot wrong about it but that was the issue for John, no matter how wrong it really seemed he couldn’t compel himself to do something, say he’s quitting and just leave, there was something to Sherlock that was drawing him in and he realized it yet he didn’t want to end it.

John quickly finished his lunch as on his way in he saw that the waiting room was filled to the maximum and he wasn’t too keen on eating whilst there was someone potentially coughing all over him.

A bit over an hour had passed when the door closed for a few seconds and he left out a deep breath, tore another piece off his notepad and clicked his pen. Exactly three seconds passed before the door opened again and he stood up but he looked at who stepped inside and it was Sarah, colleague. 

“Hey, I saw your schedule and you’ve been busy since the second you came in.’’ John chuckled and nodded, he expected something a bit more peaceful but it was true, he had been busy with patients since he sat down in his chair. “I’ve just come in and just have one patient t four or something, I can take half of yours if you want.’’ John never expected her to do this as it seemed like a curse but he really appreciated it.

“Yeah of course, thank god I really needed that.’’ He said and felt slightly awkward, something he hadn’t really felt in a while. “Well, uhm.. thanks.’’ He said and she nodded before leaving John there, it was almost more awkward than he felt when working in the DIY shop where he literally had no clue whatsoever about anything in the shop and was unable to help anyone. In four seconds, the next person was sitting in his room.

-8-

John stepped inside 221 Baker Street and was met by Mrs. Hudson who was watching the telly. He glanced up the stairs for a while and then walked towards her to thank her for the breakfast as he didn’t imagine Sherlock would ever make that and it did kind of save him this morning.

“Mrs. Hudson?’’ She turned around and smiled slightly. “Thank you for the breakfast that was in the kitchen this morning.’’ Mrs. Hudson seemed surprise for a few seconds before nodding and shrugging.

“It’s fine, it was actually meant for Sherlock but I don’t think he’d eat it either way. I can’t understand how he keeps doing that, I never see him eat, sleep and the only thing I’m really sure of is that he drinks.’’ She admitted and sounded rather worried which John understood, that didn’t really sound healthy or human.

“Well, I’m going to see how he’s doing.’’ She nodded and he left, walking up the stairs and finally opened the door. Sherlock sat in the living room behind his laptop, his chin on the tip of his hands which he held together as though he was praying. “How’d you get my number?’’ John asked as he shrugged his jacket off and dropped down in one of the armchairs, Sherlock shut his eyes.

“Are you listening to me?’’ John asked baffled, Sherlock in reply shushed him and John again had a look of confusion on his face and the silence grew for a few seconds before Sherlock opened his eyes again, got up and sat down in the chair directly facing John.

“Have you seen the news lately?’’ Sherlock asked as he tossed him the newspaper that was folded over the rests of his armchair. John effortlessly caught it and flipped it open to be faced by a bold headline reading ‘SERIAL SUICIDES’, he quickly scanned over it to reveal that there had been four people dead, all swallowed the same pill apparently but there was no sign of a murderer which was quite suspicious, John had to admit that.

“Serial suicides, four victims.’’ John commented and folded the newspaper again, Sherlock nodded and jumped up, sweeping his coat from a different chair and pulling it on, after that his blue scarf. “Wait, what do you want to do? Why did you as if I had any plans?’’ John asked as it became obvious he was planning to go out to god knows where. Sherlock gave him an ‘are you serious?’ look at John whilst John stood there, clueless. Sherlock sighed and tossed him his own coat.

“We’re going to the morgue, I would’ve gone to Brixton, Lauriston Gardens but that’s too much effort and Lestrade won’t work with me, his first major case in a while again. He’ll eventually come but it’ll be too late then.’’ Sherlock replied and John nodded but still didn’t get why the morgue, Lauriston Gardens was the place where the last suicide happened, why in god’s name Sherlock asked John along was another question.

“Just one question,’’ Sherlock gave a very quick nod. “Why am I going along with you? I’m not exactly a detective if you haven’t noticed.’’ John said and Sherlock nodded, pulling a pair of gloves on before responding.

“You’re a doctor. Just finished your studies, you weren’t opposed to becoming a military doctor, that means you would become trained in wounds on the field and be more advanced but I think you’re qualified enough already. Ready to see some injury?’’ John stiffly nodded, he realized the proper response would be ‘no’ but he couldn’t compel himself to do that, he was excited and did want to see whatever Sherlock had to offer him, no matter how wrong it was.

“Wonderful. Bart’s hospital.’’ Sherlock said and they went down the stairs and crossed the street to John’s car, it still seemed to be a point of annoyance to Sherlock but John would never pay for a cab if he had his car close and his keys with him, he refused to ever do that and Sherlock realized that John would force him into the car no matter how long or what he did in protest so he went along with it.

-8-

“Just another quick question, why would anyone let you see the body?’’ John asked as they stepped inside and immediately headed to the morgue, Sherlock seemed to ignore John which made him sigh but he trusted his instinct that someone like Sherlock would have this planned out and not randomly decided to do this.

“I know a pathologist here, bit of convincing and I’ve got a set of keys.’’ He said as he spun the key ring on his pointer finger, it was filled with different keys John imagined unlocked all sorts of rooms. “Isn’t that wrong? Taking advantage of someone.’’ John said and he shrugged.

“Maybe, who knows. Al I know is that this allows me to prevent more of this and isn’t that good, morally right doctor?’’ Sherlock said, slightly mocking. John was unsure how to respond, he imagined a bit of convincing wasn’t pleading and he wouldn’t see Sherlock above blackmail which made him feel quite unsure about the situation, it was true he did have a moral compass to be right.

Once they stepped inside the morgue the cold air attacked John, he had been in a morgue before and knew the temperature was generally cold for the bodies but he never remembered it being this cold, of course Sherlock didn’t seem to mind it at all. They walked over to one of the doors, John would describe them as locker doors, and pulled open ‘29’ inside was a woman.

“The clothes were taken by the police but there’s a copy of the report, it’s there.’’ Sherlock said as he turned to John and pointed to a filing cabinet. John walked over there and opened the top drawer and was rather happy whoever left the report left it on top of the files rather than neatly in the row otherwise it would’ve taken quite a while.

“Jennifer Wilson, found dead in Brixton, Lauriston Gardens.’’ Sherlock said as John flipped it open and started reading it whilst walking back to Sherlock. “Why would any proper police officer leave this here?’’ He asked as he handed it to Sherlock who was examining the body at different angles.

“They didn’t, I got into Lestrade’s laptop, child’s work. I asked Molly to print it out.’’ He replied as he took it from John’s hands whilst John knew this definitely was a 1000% wrong. “So you hacked into he laptop of a what, say Sergeant or Detective Inspector at Scotland yard and that’s perfectly fine?’’ Sherlock ignored John’s comment, reading the report and sometimes cross referencing it with the body.

“Well, go on examine her, you’re a doctor aren’t you?’’ John, no matter how wrong he though this was, was curious and decided one glance at her body wouldn’t hurt which is what he did, a quick scan. “Well?’’

“There are no signs of bruising, suffocation or anything that could’ve come from an attacker. Likely asphyxiation, she could’ve passed out and choked on her own vomit. Alcohol maybe, the body could be a while old. Maybe a seizure, very unlikely but a possibility is drugs.’’ John said, it was what he could collect from the body which might’ve been a while old, he had an idea of how long but couldn’t perfectly pin-point it.

“But you know who she is.’’ Sherlock responded.

“One.. One of the serial suicides.’’ It seemed rather impossible, there was nothing implying suicide, even if it was the very unlikely drugs it still didn’t seem like a suicide, people with addictions, which she didn’t seem to have at all, had quite a high tolerance for it over time and after a few times knew what they could handle. 

“Exactly. Jennifer Wilson, works in the media, married and suddenly found dead. It seemed she was carving something in the ground.’’ Sherlock commented and showed him a picture that was taken, the woman looked a bit more colourful with the shade of pink she was wearing and the words ‘Rache’ written next to her, it seemed like she was still writing from he position of her hand. John curiously looked at her fingernails and couldn’t understand why he didn’t see it or check.

“What do you think?’’ Sherlock asked as he handed it back to John and he started to read through it and shrugged. “Dunno, something along the lines of what I said earlier, could’ve had a seizure, who knows.’’ John replied and saw that Sherlock had some sort of theory as he wasn’t paying the slightest attention to him, his mind seemed to be focused on something else. “Go on, you’ve got an idea. Something like what you did when you first met me. What’s that called?’’ 

“Deduction.’’ Sherlock replied. “Well.. her clothes were all damp but the umbrella in her pocket was dry which meant there was rain but too strong for an umbrella. Any strong rain recently? Cardiff. She works in the media, the shade of pink, everything colour coded, which meant she travelled for her work from Cardiff to London. Now, this is relying on the ability for pictures to represent a true imagine which is okay but not the best, she had different jewellery on her, necklace, rings etc. They were all rather clean except for the inside of her wedding ring, as far as I am able to see it from the angle, which means she’s unhappily married but likely has a lover, string of them and someone in the media with different affairs would never leave their phone yet it was nowhere to be seen.’’ Sherlock rapidly spoke but John kept up quite alright and was amazed at the different things he didn’t notice. It was weird to hear Sherlock do these ‘deductions’ as they seemed to often be rather obvious things and it was so stupid to realize you didn’t see it, John was really curious as to how it worked.

“That is amazing.’’ He stated.

“Do you realize you do this out loud?’’ Said Sherlock. “Are you telling me to stop?’’

“No, it’s... it’s kind of nice.’’ 

“Narcissist.’’ Sherlock smiled.

“I’ve got a few theories linking it but I can’t be sure. This is it for now but there might be a different moment I’ll need you to help me. I suggest you get some dinner as you’re rather obviously starving.’’ John nodded.

-8-

“I’m back, I couldn’t get everything but it’s almost everything.’’ John said as he walked inside with the groceries as the only thing he was able to find in the fridge was a carton of milk and a hand, supposed experiment.

Sherlock responded with a ‘hmph’ and John almost let the groceries drop but he luckily remembered in time that there were a lot of breakable things in there, mostly eggs. Their whole apartment was a bigger mess than John could imagine, pictures were pinned up everywhere alongside with different reports, small sticky notes, he did notice Sherlock tried to keep it contained to the wall above their couch but it soon went a bit further than that as half of their walls were filled.

“What have you done?’’ John asked as he walked over to the kitchen table and pushed a microscope and different things backwards to put the bags down. Once he did that he walked back inside and noticed Sherlock had his eyes closed which confused him more but he went on to inspect the original area he had started to pin everything in the wall, it started with the woman in Pink, Jennifer Wilson and went on to a few more victims, the other three. John chuckled when he came across the first sticky note with Sherlock’s handwriting which he just barely was able to make out. “You’d make a good doctor.’’ John commented as he continued to inspect the wall, when John said that Sherlock opened his eyes again.

“Why do you say that?’’ He asked as John made his way across the room. “Just, handwriting.’’ He said with a shrug and Sherlock looked confused which surprised John more than a bit but he paid it no mind, continuing with glancing at the pieces of evidence, photographs and everything stuck to their walls.

“What’s the meaning of all this?’’ John asked with a sigh and just then noticed his laptop on top of a stack of books on the table and walked over to it. He stared at the open window which held a police report and then it hit him. “Have you been on my laptop all the time?’’ Sherlock nodded with a stoic expression. “it’s password protected!’’

“Took me five minutes, it’s not exactly fort knox.’’ Sherlock replied and stood up, snatching the laptop away from John and putting it in the middle of the table. “Mine was in the bedroom.’’ He replied as he started to type in something.

“So? You couldn’t be bothered to get up and go to the bedroom?’’ John demanded and Sherlock was surprised at how someone could be so angry about such a trivial matter, something he deemed less than slightly significant then again, John was somewhat ordinary, certainly a lot more interesting than Sherlock imagined but still somewhat ordinary like almost everyone, like everyone.

“Come here,’’ Sherlock said as he stood up and walked over to the wall above the couch, John sighed but followed him and stared at the report Sherlock had printed out, the cause of death underlined with a red pen. “That’s the same as the pink lady, that’s why they’re called suicides.’’ John commented and Sherlock nodded, leading him to the next and after that the first and all were the exact same.

“Suicide, you said it yourself doctor, probably asphyxiation, no smell of alcohol on any of them so choking on their own vomit is unlikely, just as drugs. Yet it’s clearly suicide, how?’’ Sherlock asked him and John shrugged, asphyxiation could be caused by multiple things and it was true it was unlikely for all of them to just have gotten extremely drunk and passed out

“Well, if everyone is so convinced it is suicide than… If it’s still asphyxiation it could’ve been caused by something they self-administer, that’s the only way it could be suicide.’’ John said unsure, it was the only logical conclusion but the question was, why? Why would someone do that? Obviously not out of choice, or it was an unlikely thing, so they were forced, but who could force something like that? John had said aloud without realizing.

“Maybe you’re not so stupid after all.’’ Sherlock said, a slight grin playing on his lips. John blushed at the comment and also wondered how he hadn’t realized he was saying that aloud, although because his old flatmate was rarely home he made a habit of thinking aloud, it made arranging his thoughts quite a bit easier.

“I guess that’s a compliment.’’ John said and Sherlock ignored that, moving back to all the photos and files there were on Jennifer Wilson. “It is reported that her coat was wet, she had an umbrella in her pocket. For once Anderson was able to think and note that the umbrella in her pocket was completely dry, so there was rain and wind, so strong she couldn’t use her umbrella, she was found a few days ago and so you check the weather, strong wind and rain, Cardiff.’’ He stated, showing his phone’s screen, John nodded and kept himself from making a comment about how good it actually was to conclude that with the little evidence he has seen in person, this is trusting other people and photos. “Now she works in media, she would travel here for her work and need to stay here for a while, likely a night or two. Yet there was no suitcase found, not even a phone. We’re talking about someone in the media who also has a few affairs running, you’d never leave your phone.’’ John nodded, it all made sense.

“Obviously she would’ve eventually gotten into a cab, her coat was described as slightly damp, it could’ve been drying a while but with the amount of wind and rain no one in their right mind would try to keep walking through it so she would’ve gotten into a cab. Of course this can’t be proven, it’s solemnly based on pictures, but continuing that trail she would’ve arrived there and likely the driver forgot about her suitcase and with all the pink she was wearing it would be quite noticeable, especially if a man was driving. So it meant he would be getting rid of it as soon as he possibly could.’’ He explained and John nodded, surprised that he finally stopped talking as it seemed he never would, not that John really minded.

“I’ll hold the rest off until tomorrow, I’ve got a few plans.’’ Sherlock replied as he noticed John was rather tired and still had a job he had to wake up for the morning, he didn’t really know why he bothered so much with John but it was nice, he was someone who wasn’t necessarily smart but not as blandly stupid as most, also he was a doctor which slightly helped. John nodded. 

“Just take this all off when you’re finished, I’m not too keen on seeing different photographs of dead bodies.’’ He commented as he went over to the kitchen and got himself a glass of water and downed it in one gulp before he said a quick goodnight, knowing that Sherlock doesn’t bother with curtsies, before heading to bed. He liked the idea of getting enough sleep so he was able to stay up the whole day tomorrow and made a note to get some food before going to his job which meant he had to get up and leave earlier.

Sherlock spent most of the night behind the microscope, looking at something that was unrelated to the case of the serial suicides because it was something he was working on before and he imagined that John wouldn’t appreciate waking up to a suitcase of a dead woman and he wasn’t too keen on going out with the massive pour at the moment, he didn’t mind rain but he didn’t like it either. Most of the time he just ended up sighing and doing nothing before Sherlock decided it was better to sleep; it wasn’t that he enjoyed it but he had nothing better to do and he hadn’t slept in some while, at least he didn’t remember when he did last time and how long that was. With those thoughts, he went to bed.


	4. Chapter 4.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for being very patient with me :) It's a very long chapter so I hope you enjoy it.

Sherlock woke up early, earlier than John, and went right back to the case, ignoring the itch that was very apparent and bugging his mind continuously. He kept going over all the evidence he had despite that he was almost completely confident that he was right but it was both to keep him busy and for some reason he wasn’t ready to leave yet, it was something he couldn’t quite place.

John eventually woke up and walked inside, yawning loudly with a mug of tea and a plate of toast that was just slightly burned. “So, what can I expect when I get home now? A body?’’ John said, the sarcasm dripping off his tongue and Sherlock noticed he hadn’t slept at all and he wondered why, he also learnt that he should probably grant John his sleep or he’ll have this attitude every day.

“Nothing too shocking.’’ Sherlock replied, John nodded and started to nibble on his food and took out his phone. Sherlock closed his eyes for a while, imagining how big the area would be and how long it would take for him to really cover all the ground. John wasn’t noticing it at all and when Sherlock opened his eyes again John was still on his phone. _Problems with something, worry kept him up._

“Might want to check the time.’’ Sherlock commented as he pulled out his own phone, he quickly sent a text before putting it away again, John was groaning. He got up and cleaned his plate up as well as quickly rinsed the mug before pulling his coat on and going through the contents of his bag once. John left with a quick goodbye which Sherlock replied back.

He took a curious glance at the file that was in the middle of a paper stack, one of the many that were piling up on the table. Most of it were actually just old things he had solved that he couldn’t be bothered to throw out because if he was going to actually clean he’d need a whole garbage truck. With his quick decision he got up and pulled the file out from somewhere in the middle, he opened it.

The start was boring and obvious, curiously he found out that John had a sister which Sherlock thought about for a while, of course there would be something about them that would cause them to be frosty. John’s a doctor and seems to have a rather strong moral compass, drugs would be a bit extreme and he considered that John might not even talk to her then, alcohol was rather common and could do more direct damage than smoking if she happen to be someone who became aggressive when she was drunk. Drinking, of course.

Sherlock took a minute to recollect what he wanted to do today, he already had a plan of course but it only lasted an hour max, he knew that because it couldn’t take any longer than that with the size of the area and even taking in delays and such. He quickly left and once the cab was taking him there he started to think what exactly he could do in the time that John was still away, taking in the fact that he had appointments of other GP’s it was sure for him to be finished an hour later, a max of two and minimum of thirty minutes.

-8-

It took ten minutes shorter than Sherlock had expected and now he had to find something to do. He wanted John’s opinion on the case and what they could do next, he had a few different plans of what could happen but he’d like to know what John thought to do next because John’s opinion wasn’t too bad, it was actually alright compared to most people. But he had a lot of hours left before John came back and he had to do something, but what was the question.

There weren’t any cases; there was nothing that wasn’t indulging into something. He was unsure which of his two bad habits were the lesser of the evils, obviously he knew he had to time everything quite right if he didn’t want a lecture or in general just a very angry roommate from now on, smoking would quite obviously be the lesser of the two evils but he ahead to get new ones and he didn’t really want to go outside. He glanced at the open kitchen counter, a little over half would be enough to keep him busy for the time John was gone and it would’ve ended before he came back.

-8-

“Sherlock?’’ John asked as he stood in the doorway. He heard a ‘mm’ come from the kitchen and found Sherlock there with a pair of cut off hands, in a bag. John gave him an odd look and only then did Sherlock seem to notice what he was holding. “Right experiment, they’ll be in the bottom drawer of the fridge so I suggest not opening it for a while.’’ He replied and went on his way to put them in there. John wondered how he even got them but decided not to ask, rather aim his attention at the suitcase that was in the middle of their living room.

“So, you got the suitcase.’’ John stated as he sat down in one of the armchairs and pulled his phone out, Harry had been nagging him about his supposed new boyfriend and John was getting rather frustrated at how many times he had to point out it wasn’t boyfriends, not necessarily. John wasn’t convinced Sherlock could be in a relationship with anyone, that was his honest opinion yet he didn’t dare to say that for some reason.

“Yep. Took ten minutes less than I thought.’’ He replied and John noticed a door of the cupboard which was wide open but he decided to pay it no mind, rather focusing on the alarming suitcase that was in their living room. “Shouldn’t we call the police?’’ John suggested, it would be a great way to get the evidence and they would actually be able to know everything about the case, Sherlock looked at him. “Are you an idiot?’’

“I suppose in your opinion, yes. Why not?’’ Sherlock couldn’t keep himself from smiling at the sarcastic remark. “First of all, I’ve stolen evidence of a high-key case and don’t have a suspect to pay for it. Seconds of all, Lestrade will block me out from then on and get all the credit. Lastly there will be idiots flooding this apartment from that second on or I’m forced to work outside of this apartment and neither is acceptable. So we’re not getting the police involved.’’ Sherlock rapidly explained and then John did realize all the evidence hanging in this room was stolen from Lestrade his laptop and printed out or from the morgue, Sherlock had a really strong point.

“Right, so now what? We’ve got a suitcase of a dead woman.’’ John bluntly stated and Sherlock shook his head as he beckoned him to walk over, John stared at the inside which held a toilet bag, a few pieces of clothing, a few chargers, different jewels, pencil case, notepad and a few other random thing which he could see from the top of the bag.

“Well if you remember, which depends on how much attention you paid, she works in the media. These days, like for almost everything else, it is required to have a phone, whether it be for quick notes, people who need to make calls to you or vice versa, someone in the media would never leave their phone anywhere, especially if they’re working. So, where’s her phone if it’s not in here?’’ Sherlock asked John, he shrugged.

“People forget stuff all the time.’’ He replied.

“Work in the media, you don’t forget phone then if people text you or call you. Realistically, she couldn’t have forgotten it she even has two chargers in here for a phone. So, the only place it could be is?’’

“Look. I joined this whole thing for fun, to see what would happen and because Mike wouldn’t stop nagging me about it. I didn’t do this to solve murder mysteries, because I don’t want to do that. I’m supposed to be romantically involved and if not that just be friends or whatever I’m just… I don’t want this.’’ John said with a sigh, resting his head in his palms. It seemed to be quite a hard thing to get across to him but John really didn’t want to spent this whole room looking at dead bodies.

“Sure, but this is more fun.’’ John raised his eyebrows and looked extremely unimpressed.

“Fun?! There are four people dead and a fifth might be on their way.’’ John said and he was even amazed at how angry he became but he thought it was definitely justified. John’s outburst came not only as a surprise to him but to Sherlock as well who retreated a bit and seemed genuine surprised.

“Here, sent a text to that number.’’ Sherlock handed John a small note and John sighed but went along with it, typing the number in his phone. “These words exactly; What happened at Lauriston Gardens? I must have blacked out. Twenty-two Northumberland Street. Please come.’’ John did as he was commanded and nodded at Sherlock once he finished.

“So, who did I just text and where is this for?’’ John asked as he dropped into the armchair and noticed the sudden change in Sherlock’s behaviour from something he considered friendly towards something that was extremely distant. Sherlock didn’t respond for a few seconds, he appeared to be thinking rather deeply. “Jennifer Wilson.’’

John furrowed his brow. “She’s dead.’’

“Yep.’’ Sherlock replied, John didn’t get it.

Sherlock groaned at the confusion that was still obvious for John. “She worked in the media and would’ve never left her phone and so chances are the killer has it.’’ Sherlock explained and John’s eyes suddenly turned wide.

“I’ve just texted a serial killer, could you just.. From now on tell me that before I actually do it?’’ John sighed and rested his head in his palm, he just wanted someone he could have a good time with and if not they could be friends, that wouldn’t be too bad. He never signed up to solve murders.

Sherlock didn’t respond and John didn’t expect him too, Sherlock seemed to have gotten rather upset and a result of that seemed to be that he was going to ignore John. He didn’t mind it too much though, he could work through a few series this night and just relax from the stressful day he’s had, sadly they won’t end in a while since the doctor who left on maternity leave had a lot of patients, he’d dare say more than all of them combined and now they were just being dropped onto him and the other colleagues.

John got an unpleasant surprise when he opened Netflix on his laptop, his phone started to ring. In a second Sherlock stood in his room and stopped John from taking the phone, the ringing stopped in a second. “If someone found her phone they would’ve ignored it, but a killer, receiving a text from his victim-‘’

“They would panic.’’ John finished.

“Have you informed the police of this all? I mean I’m sure they’d be able to help with something, I mean they have a lot more manpower.’’ John commented with a shrug, Sherlock scoffed. “Four people are dead, a fifth might be on their way there’s no time to talk to the police. They’ll take all the credit anyway.’’ John chuckled.

“Genius and still so petty.’’ Sherlock rolled his eyes. “So, what now?’’

“You could sit here and watch your stupid shows or you could come with me.’’ John felt rather excited by the thought; it obviously meant something would happen but there was a doubt tingling in his mind.

“What am I really doing? I’m a medical doctor, I’m supposed to cure people of their cold or give them some salve for their itching skin. I’m not supposed to look at dead bodies.’’ John commented.

“You had a back-up plan though, army doctor. You weren’t indifferent to it, you might’ve even liked it more, the only real reason you’re here is because you got a job offered the second you stepped out of uni, you just wanted financial security but you like the thrill better.’’ Sherlock commented and John cursed the fact that he was able to just see that. It was true, John had always wanted to be in the army but the thought of having to kill wasn’t that appealing and so he always wanted to help people it became obvious to him, an army doctor. Combining the two things he wanted.

“Oh shut up.’’ Sherlock smirked as John got up and followed him out.

-8-

“So, I’m assuming we’re heading to Northumberland street, I don’t imagine you’d take me out for dinner just because you’re nice.’’ Sherlock sniggered but nodded and was surprised at the fact that John definitely wasn’t as stupid as Sherlock had assumed from the start which was good news for him.

“But why would he or she go there? Would they really be stupid enough?’’

“Nope, I think he or she is brilliant enough to go there. People who are brilliant are always desperate to get caught.’’ Sherlock replied which left John puzzled.

“Why? I don’t think there’s any serial killer who’s doing it to get caught.’’

“It’s genius, brilliance. It needs an audience, a stage, applause and appreciation.’’ Sherlock said and John stared at him for a few seconds. _A stage._ He smiled and was unsure whether it appeared cynically or not, he wasn’t sure which he’d hoped for as both were accurate of how he was feeling.

“Look around, the victims were abducted and that changes everything, it means they’re likely random but if they were abducted it had to be done by the same person applying the same method. People who disappear from crowds, busy streets but no one saw them go. They walked out of their lives with a complete stranger they trusted immediately and swallowed his poison. Someone we trust immediately.’’ Sherlock said and John wondered if he was talking to him or just saying his thoughts out loud. Either way John also started to think, there was barely anyone you trusted immediately beside family but it was very likely it was just one person and it seemed rather impossible that four people, completely unrelated, all share a related family.

“A driver? Someone in public transport.  I mean they take you anywhere and everywhere but you never really talk to them or thank them or whatever.’’ John said and Sherlock turned to look at him, there was a small bit of surprise but Sherlock started to grin. “Brilliant.’’

“You think? Isn’t it kind of obvious when you stop to think.’’ John started to slightly smile as well; it was nice to notice something he didn’t immediately or at least hadn’t expressed out loud yet.

“You’re a lot brighter than I expected.’’

“Well, I did get a PhD so I’m not a complete idiot but thanks.’’ John responded and the two of them chuckled, almost laughed.

“I assume we’ve got to wait six minutes so is there anything you need or can do in that short time?’’ John shrugged, he had a really big lunch which was because four, including him, GP had gone to place so they could get a rest form the constant stream of patients and eat. Then suddenly it dawned on him.

“Oh yeah but It’s just sending an email.’’ Sherlock nodded and started to watch the street whilst John pulled out his phone. He did his fair share of research at work when he had the time and during the lunch whilst two of them were smoking outside. Out of his curiosity he wanted to reach out to said Mycroft, obviously he couldn’t easily find a phone number but since he is in parliament or something alike he was easily able to find an email, he knew Sherlock wouldn’t say a word about him anymore, they didn’t seem to be particularly close.

_Dear Mr. Holmes_

_I’d like to introduce myself, I am John Watson a Medical Doctor. I had joined a sort of social experiment or a program in which I happen to meet your brother, Sherlock Holmes. I was wondering if you are able to tell me a bit about him because he seems rather against it or at least he isn’t sharing much details and I imagine he never will. If I might ask I’d also like to know a bit more about you as once I brought up your name he referred to you as an ‘arch-nemesis’ which isn’t what most people would call their brother._

_I hope to receive a reply soon._

_John Watson._

 

“A taxi. Of course. We step into their cars without a second doubt.’’ Sherlock commented and John put his phone away, also seeing the taxi which had just arrived inside Northumberland street. “Don’t stare.’’ Sherlock hissed. “We can’t both stare.’’

Sherlock started to walk through the crowds, approaching the cab which John followed and he started to focus on the number plate, it seemed to be one of the easiest ways to identify it. Once John was sure he had known it he looked up, for a freeze moment the three of them were staring at each other and that second the cab started to pull away and drive.

“At least we’ve got a number.’’ John commented and Sherlock rolled his eyes.

“Left turn, one way, road works, traffic lights, bus lane, pedestrian crossing, left turn only, traffic lights…’’ From that moment on Sherlock’s mumbling became inaudible but John was starting to focus on the fact that his friend knew the whole map of London from memory and knew every traffic light, every turn, every pedestrian crossing and every roadwork. It didn’t really seem human to know that much but John decided not to mention it.

Sherlock’s eyes snapped up to an apartment block nearby and within a second he was racing over there, John immediately followed and noticed that there was a man entering the apartment building. Sherlock shoved him aside. “Sorry!’’ John called after him. The pair raced up the stairs and were surprised there were no angry neighbours coming, once they reached the top floor John stopped, staring at Sherlock who was climbing out of a window.

Once Sherlock had gotten up on the roof John cursed and started to climb out as well, he was so happy that he always prioritized keeping fit to a certain extent, it started to slack off a bit as the last few weeks he had been more busy with studying that working out but he still had a good cardio and some muscles.

A few seconds later they were both on the roof and Sherlock stopped for a second, looking at John to be sure he was all right, John seemed to be more alive than ever before. Sherlock went on and leapt from the rooftop they were on to the next, John thought for a second but immediately dismissed it, leaping after Sherlock. They raced down the stairs and ended up on the ground again, despite John’s good cardio he had a hard time following Sherlock which wasn’t because he was going too fast, he ran just a bit ahead but rather it was because he seemed to change his mind every single second about which direction they needed to go.

“How-‘’

“No time. Keep up, we’re almost there.’’ Sherlock dismissed.

They finally crossed paths with the taxi which caused Sherlock to get hit in the side, it didn’t really hurt but it was just annoying. He flashed one of Lestrade’s older ID which he had stolen. “Police, pull over.’’ The cabbie stopped the taxi.

Sherlock pulled the door open and he stared at him for a second before groaning, John gave him a look. “No! Teeth, tan, what, Californian?’’ Sherlock glanced at the tag. “LA, Santa Monica, just arrived.’’

“Are you kidding?’’

“Luggage.’’ Sherlock motioned towards it and John glanced at it. “Oh, and your first trip to London probably, going by your destination, and the route this driver has taken you.’’ John couldn’t believe they had just ran across London to get the wrong cab, of course they would.

“Sorry. Are you guys the police?’’ The man asked with a thick American accent.

“Yes. Is everything all right?’’ Sherlock responded.

“Yeah.’’ The man replied, slightly awkward.

“Welcome to London.’’ Sherlock said before striding off which left John there. The man seemed bemused and John cleared his throat. “Right, any problems.. Just let us know.’’ John closed the door and caught up with Sherlock who seemed even more annoyed than he was before when John pointed out that this wasn’t exactly fun, _part of it wasn’t._

“So. That was basically just a taxi that happened to slow down.’’ John commented with a small chuckle.

“Basically.’’

“Not the murderer.’’ John found it rather amusing opposed to Sherlock, it was mostly because he knew he wouldn’t do much more interesting than what had just happened.

“No, not the murderer.’’ John started to notice the annoyance.

“Wrong country. Pretty good alibi I have to admit, if you need one.’’ Sherlock rolled his eyes.

“As they go.’’ John snatched the ID which Sherlock held and he read it, Detective Inspector wasn’t just anything.

“Detective Inspector Lestrade from Scotland Yard? Is there going to be a day when I find a body that you murdered?’’ John asked with a slight chuckle, somehow he felt like he wouldn’t be surprised if there is a lot more Sherlock has done in the past that is definitely illegal and John was rather curious to find out what.

“Yeah. I pick-pocket him when he’s annoying. You can keep that one, It’s a few years old and I’ve got a lot more.’’ John started to laugh. “What?’’

“Nothing, it’s just… ‘’Welcome to London.’’’ The two of them started chuckling but it rather quickly died as John followed Sherlock’s gaze. The taxi had pulled over and in the distance he spotted a policeman who was talking to the passenger.

“Ready?’’

“Of course. Race?’’ Sherlock huffed which John took as a yes.

-8-

Once back at Baker Street John opened the fridge and was even surprised to find food there as it seemed Sherlock didn’t eat. It was a microwave dish which he luckily enjoyed from time to time because John was very lazy when it came to cooking. He started to eat that when Mrs. Hudson came in, looking rather hysterical.

“What have you two done? There’s a swarm of officers at my door.’’ She said and John cast a glance at Sherlock.

“I imagined this would happen, the passenger, he talked to an officer and he informs everyone...’’ John nodded and didn’t need a longer explanation. The pounding of feet on the staircase didn’t stop for a while and once all the officers were up John was rather surprised by the amount.

“Drugs bust.’’ The man said who first walked in, John imagined he was someone important. At this comment John scoffed.

“Are you serious?’’

“Yes. Detective Inspector Lestrade, I have the luck of knowing him longer than a day but also the misfortune of having known him longer than a day.’’ He said and John was still extremely amused but now got why this man entered first as it was rather obvious he was leading all of this.

“You wouldn’t have had to do this would you have just called me the day Jennifer Wilson died.’’ Sherlock commented whilst everyone started to look through literally everything and despite that John was okay with people, this was extremely annoying.

“You would’ve withheld evidence. Either way, this all made it easier to get the order, I actually have an arrest warrant so I’m taking it slowly, it’s not exactly legal to steal evidence from a police officer, just if you didn’t know.’’ He replied and it became obvious to John the two must’ve known each other for quite a while.

“Still, this guy? Pretty sure you could search this flat all day, you wouldn’t find anything you’d find in a dorm.’’ John commented, he knew a few people who he shared a few classes with who did something more than recreational use to the point where John wondered how they were still alive, of course all the people he knew were also PhD students or medical students, the irony.

“Shut up.’’ Sherlock said and John gave him an amused look. “What do you want?’’ Sherlock asked Lestrade, obviously annoyed.

“I didn’t let you in on this case but it seems obvious that you’ve done more in a few days with some very illegal methods than this team did in a month with everything at their disposal. So if you’d like I could let you in but I don’t want anything like this again, that’s it. No hacking if you’d mind.’’

“You could’ve texted? You had to set up a pretend drugs bust?’’ Sherlock commented.

“Stops being pretend if they find anything.’’

“For god’s sake I don’t even smoke.’’ John was rather confused at the statement but only now noticed that both the skull and the packet of cigarettes were gone. Sherlock rolled up his sleeve which revealed multiple Nicotine patches, Lestrade did the same and showed the same result only less.

“Are you still able to breath?’’ John commented as he threw his dish away, having finished it. “Breathing’s boring.’’ Sherlock responded.

“She wrote Rachel, or well was planning to write Rachel and so it wasn’t Rache.’’ Lestrade shot a small glare at one of the people standing in the kitchen. “We’ve found out who she is. Jennifer Wilson’s only daughter and dead, stillborn fourteen years ago.’’ Lestrade explained.

“Why would she do that? The name of her stillborn.’’ Sherlock said, he was agitated by this, she was the only one who left a note so she was their best shot at catching whoever was the serial killer.

“Why would she think of her daughter in her last moments. Yeah, sensing the whole psychopath thing.’’ It was the same person who Lestrade had just glared at and John sensed he didn’t like Sherlock, then again john was convinced most people didn’t like Sherlock, he wasn’t exactly likeable.

“I’m not a psychopath Anderson, I’m a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.’’ Sherlock responded and John just watched, decided that it was better not to say too much in this situation.

“She didn’t _think_ about her daughter, she scratched her name on the floor. She was dying, it took effort, it would’ve even hurt, she was trying to tell us something! A hint, a clue!’’ Sherlock responded angrily to the comment and John had to admit that he made sense, scratching a name didn’t seem too appealing.

“You said the victims take it themselves, it’s not forced or anything. So, maybe he or she or I don’t know just talk to them. A bit of manipulation or convincing. Maybe he used the death of her daughter.’’

“Oh, it isn’t the worst idea but the death was ages ago, why would she still be upset?’’ John visibly cringed at this.

“Not good?’’ Sherlock asked.

“A bit not good, more like horrible. Yeah.’’

Sherlock started to pace frantically. “Yes, but listen! If you were dying, if you’d been murdered in your very last seconds, what would you say.’’

“Please god let me live.’’ John said, the words felt very odd to say and it wasn’t something he liked to recall.

“Oh, use your imagination.!’’

“I don’t have to because I’d say these words, the same words.’’ Sherlock gave him a curious glance and they held each other’s gaze for a few seconds. John was visibly reliving something he really didn’t like and Sherlock was curious what he was thinking about in that second.

“Yes, but if you were clever, if you were very clever.. Jennifer Wilson, possibly running all kinds of affairs, a job where manipulation is something you need to rise and get your information, the things people want to hear. She was clever, and she’s trying to tell us something.’’ Sherlock said.

“isn’t the doorbell working? Your taxi’s here, Sherlock.’’ John rose and went over to Mrs. Hudson and was even more confused now with what she had just said. “What are they doing?’’ She asked and John sighed.

“It’s a drug bust.’’

“Oh, but they’re just for my hip. They’re herbal soothers.’’ It amused John but he didn’t say anything, just nodded. He did wonder why there would be a taxi, no one had ordered one as obviously the police came in their cars.

“Shut up! Everybody shut up, I’m thinking, don’t move, don’t breathe, Anderson, face the other way you’re putting me off!’’ John snorted and got a glare from Sherlock before he closed his eyes.

“What, my face is?’’ Anderson demanded. “Everybody quiet and still. Anderson, turn your back.’’ John would’ve laughed again but was able to keep it to himself, for now.

“Your back, now, please!’’ Anderson turned around. John also took this moment of silence to think about the conclusion he came to and if it was logical. It couldn’t be the only option but it seemed to be very likely, the only taxi driver who had seen them today was the one of the cab they pulled over. It could only be the driver or just someone random.

“Oh, she was clever. Clever, yes, I love her! She’s cleverer than you lot dead! Do you see? Do you get it? She didn’t lose her phone, she never lost it. She planted in on him. When she got out of that car she knew he was going to her death, she left the phone and lead us to her killer.’’

“But how?’’ Lestrade asked.

“What do you mean, how? Rachel, don’t you see Rachel! Oh, look at you lot, you’re all so vacant! What’s it like, not being me, it must be so relaxing. Rachel is not a name.’’ John furrowed his brow and walked over to Sherlock who grabbed his laptop and opened his browser.

“John, the luggage label, it had an email address on it.’’ John went over to the case which Lestrade had thrown open on the table and easily found the label. “Jennie dot pink at mephone dot org dot uk.’’ He read out.

“I’ve been too slow; she didn’t have a laptop, which means she did her business on her phone. So it’s a smartphone, its email enabled. So there’s a website for her account.’’ Sherlock opened a site and started type in the email and password. “Username is obviously the email and so the password is..’’

“Rachel.’’ John filled in, he nodded.

“The taxi and not shut up you’re not going to interrupt me.’’ Sherlock furrowed his brow and was annoyed at John but still let him talk. “There’s only one taxi driver who it could be, the cabbie from earlier. No one else has seen us or you, just.. look, it might be farfetched but it might not be the passenger we had to look for but the cabbie. Someone who we always trust.’’ Sherlock immediately dashed out.

“Where’s he going to?’’ Lestrade asked.

“It doesn’t matter, let’s focus on the reference. It’s not a name but it’s still more than we have now.’’ John stared at it and felt more impatient than he ever felt before, in a few seconds they finally got an address.

“It’s just a few streets away from here- wait it’s moving!’’ John exclaimed and wished he had the magic skill Sherlock seemed to possess to know where someone was heading, Lestrade got up and glanced over John’s shoulder.

“I’ve got it open. We’re done here, got a trail we need to go on.’’ Lestrade said as he had the same site open on his phone and everyone was gone within seconds, getting into their cars and racing off. John took a few seconds to think, if Sherlock was in danger, what could he do? He noticed a silver glimmer in a box, _a gun_.

John had been at a shooting range ever since he turned eighteen, he didn’t particularly like the heavy weapons but it was a good past time, it made him very accurate and gave him a good concentration. And now he feared he had to put that to task. He closed the notebook and slid the gun in his jacket’s pocket before running out, jumping into the nearest cab.

-8-

John arrived at the address the phone had stopped, at least it was still moving but the end of the road. He arrived at Roland-Kerr further education college, it was a very odd place but John didn’t care about that, he stared at the two buildings, a fifty percent shot. He made his chose and busted in. John raced around as fast as he could, all the classrooms, all the hallways, all the floors and just everything he was able to check and he arrived at one last destination.

“Sherlock?’’ John yelled as he ran into another room to find it empty, of course it was empty just like all the others. John reached the last corridor he could find after a lot of extensive running. Eventually John had gone through all the doors and was met by a wall with a window. In the other building he saw Sherlock and some man, both holding a pill, _poison._

“Sherlock!’’ He screamed, and of course, no response.

He pulled out the gun and stared at it for a few seconds, a knot was forming in his stomach. There’s a fifty percent chance Sherlock’s going to die, would he really risk that? He knew he wouldn’t, despite knowing the man for a few days he wouldn’t risk that, he knew he wouldn’t but the thought of shooting a man was far from appealing as well.

He saw them both raising their hands; the pill was almost touching Sherlock’s lips, now or never. He held the gun in one of his hands, his grip was tight and with no doubt left in his mind he pulled the trigger.

-8-

“Who do I have this blanket on me? They keep putting this blanket on me?’’ Sherlock exclaimed, he did drink the coffee and find it rather horrible, it’s not how he liked it. It really all went rather quickly, the ride was boring but the conversation was somewhat interesting, not the most but somewhat. The gunfire changed everything up though, a sudden bullet through the window which shot the cabbie, hit him and he died from blood loss, simple and somewhat clean.

“It’s for shock.’’ Lestrade explained.

“I’m not in shock!’’ Sherlock protested and Lestrade chuckled.

“Yeah but some of the guys  want to take photographs.’’ Sherlock gave him a glare. “So, the shooter. No sign of him?’’ Lestrade nodded, he was surprised that someone had come here and shot with this precise aim.

“Cleared off before we got here, traffic blocks gave us a delay so there’s a lot of time to leave for him or her.’’ He explained and Sherlock rolled his eyes. “Come on, I even got a notebook this time.’’ Lestrade said and Sherlock chuckled.

“The bullet they just dug out of the wall was from a hand gun. A kill shot over that distance from that kind of weapon, that’s a crack shot you’re looking for. But not just a marksman, someone like a fighter or someone with experience, he couldn’t have shaken at all so clearly he either has it as a hobby or has done it a lot in the past. The fire only happened when I was in immediate danger so he’s got a strong sense of moral, unwilling to kill unless immediate danger.’’ His gaze turned over to John and he immediately seemed one of his pockets a bit lower, _a gun_. John would be the most logical to protect him, who else was there?

“Just, forget that.’’ He mumbled, even though there wasn’t any clarity in it that could lead to John, he still didn’t want to risk it.

“I’m sorry?’’ Lestrade asked.

“Ignore all that. It’s the shock talking.’’ Sherlock got up and started to head to John, ignoring everything Lestrade was saying. It were obviously stupid things he was saying and Sherlock didn’t have the time for that, he tossed the blanket in the ambulance and went under the tape to John.

“Sergeant Donavan’s been explaining about everything. The two pills- dreadful business, dreadful.’’ John said and Sherlock would’ve snorted extremely loudly if it weren’t for the police officers watching them.

“Good shot, care to tell me how you were able to do that?’’ Sherlock whispered.

“Of course you know. I’ve been going to a range ever since a few years, I picked your gun up by the way, light model, it’s quite nice.’’ John commented and Sherlock shrugged.

“We’ll need to get the powder burns out of your finger. I don’t suppose you’d serve time for this considering it’s a serial killer but let’s avoid the court case. Are you all right?’’ Sherlock asked, if he’s only been at a range he imagined this was his first kill.

“Course yeah.. I’m alright.’’ John replied.

“You just shot a man, the first man you ever shot.’’ Sherlock commented, on most people it would have quite a psychological effect but it didn’t seem to effect John too much, he wasn’t sure if that was good or not.

“Yeah but he wasn’t a good man. I was planning to go to the military, so I suppose I always thought this day would come. Not this situation though.’’ Sherlock chuckled.

“He really wasn’t a good man.’’

“And frankly, a bloody awful cabbie.’’ The two of them laughed a bit, not too loudly or too much as there were still a lot of officers watching and it wasn’t appropriate to laugh at a crime scene where a serial killer was dead.

“Stop it, we can’t giggle it’s a bloody crime scene, stop.’’ John said as they were giggling like school boys and people were starting to turn eyes towards them.

“Don’t blame me. You shot him.’’

“You could maybe keep your voice down a little.’’ It wasn’t in his favour if every officer here knew that he just shot a man a while ago.

“You were going to take the damn pill, weren’t you?’’

“Course I wasn’t. Playing for time. Knew you’d show up.’’ John snorted.

“No, you didn’t. That’s how you get your kicks, isn’t it? Risking your life to prove you’re clever.’’ He wanted to add something but didn’t, but it was obvious Sherlock couldn’t have known all of this about him and especially the part that he would turn up and be able to actually shoot a man definitely wasn’t in the plan.

“Why would I do that?’’

“Because you’re an idiot.’’ Sherlock glanced at John for a moment, affronted. And then the two of them started to smile. John never imagined there would be something that could happen between them but maybe this was the start of the whole project.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, Mycroft is coming soon if you were wondering.


	5. Chapter 5

“Are you sure you’re okay?’’ John was surprised at the question but was somewhat grateful for it; he had some nightmares last night although they didn’t have to do too much with the killing a man, Sherlock didn’t need to know that though. Still, it was nice that he showed a sign that he cared.

“Yeah. Just.. Just a nightmare but that’s to be expected.’’ John said and took another bite of the bacon he had made. He was starting a little later today which gave him the opportunity to sleep in, somewhat, and have a proper breakfast without stressing he’ll make it on time with the traffic. Sherlock was willing to calculate the fastest route, taking in traffic lights and basically everything that could happen, John politely refused, no need to stroke his ego further.

“You can call in sick, let’s be honest you deserve that, I’m a very convincing liar.’’ John chuckled but shook his head, he wasn’t sick and mentally he knew he was also okay, he suffered from somewhat regular nightmares that weren’t too harsh on him anymore, he had gotten used to them and they were becoming more vague and vague with the years passing.

“What happened to all of that ‘detachment’ and ‘alone’ stuff.’’ John said with a cocky grin, Sherlock scoffed but seemed amused.

“Oh shut up. I’m supposed to be your friend or something. This is as nice as I’ll get.’’ Sherlock replied and peered down in his microscope again, John had to admit that he was slightly moved by this, he didn’t imagine someone like Sherlock would have a lot of friends and just the effort to be friendly was a big change from the ‘no affection period.’.

“Well, just so you know I appreciate the effort.’’ John said as he got up and put his plate in the sink. The papers were flooded with what happened last night and there was something that bugged John, the credit. Of course all of it was given to Scotland Yard and even though John knew Sherlock, likely ,didn’t care it still bugged him to know that the man he was living with had such an amazing and brilliant mind yet a few close circles knew of him.

“Don’t you ever get annoyed by it?’’

“Hmm?’’ He looked up.

“Well working like some sniffer dog for them, I mean you’ve done this whole case from your living room in a few days compared to their weeks. Don’t you ever get annoyed by the credit they get?’’ Sherlock shrugged.

“Does it matter? I had something to do which is all I wanted.’’ Sherlock simply replied, John furrowed his brow.

“Still.’’ Sherlock didn’t respond and John was left to ponder what Mike had said ‘tell me about it’ telling was such an innocent thing to get news around, But telling isn’t enough, telling would mean friends and if lucky friends of other friends, though there was a place where telling was more than enough, the internet.

“It’s about time I go.’’ John said as he got up. He got a water bottle, little notepad, pencil case and a book he could read if he had some time off. He shrugged his jacket on and once he had his keys Sherlock spoke a last time.

“I won’t be here when you get back.’’ John cast a curious glance.

“Business.’’ John, feeling very suspicious, nodded.

-8-

John stared at his computer screen for a while. “It’s really good, trust me.’’ He looked up at Mike, John still felt doubtful. He had a very calm day today with the patients once being well split between every GP, he had a few hours between his second to last and last patient which is why he called Mike about his idea, Mike thought it was brilliant and decided to come. John’s idea was to make a blog to post both his life on to record how the project was going but also about the cases Sherlock would solve, a nice way to give him credit.

“D’you think? I’m not exactly an author.’’ John’s essays were always credited well because of the fact that he could explain the facts very well and draw good conclusions but ever since he had to write them his teachers were noting his ‘story’ could be better, the flow of sentences and so on.

“Yeah, look I wouldn’t lie about this. It’s better than any essay you’ve ever given me to review.’’ The two of them chuckled and with that, John hit post. Obviously he wasn’t expecting it to take off in a day, nothing did, but he imagined it would be interesting for a community, maybe not the biggest but a few hundred people at least were interested in someone like Sherlock.

“Alright. Well, that’s it. I’ve got my last patient in a few minutes so you should probably go. Not that you’re not a good doctor, probably a better one than me, but still.’’ Mike nodded and with quick goodbyes he left. John was left to stare at his screen until a few seconds later, there was a knock on his door.

-8-

_Ring. Ring. Rng._

“Dr. John Watson?’’ John stared at his phone, the voice from the other side was a bit ominous but not necessarily, it was dark and mysterious and John didn’t recall giving his number to anyone and he didn’t have a clue why someone would call him right now, about to drive home.

“Yes. And you are?’’ John asked, turning his engine off.

“Look at the camera, the lamppost in front of you.’’ John furrowed his brow but looked up and saw the camera which faced the street start to face him, he started to get slightly worried. Obviously this was something either with some hacking skills or the government.

“Right, yeah. Who the hell are you?’’ John decided to cut to the chase.

“Not to your importance right now. We’ll meet soon, notice the black limousine in front of you?’’ John nodded to the camera, there was a very fancy black limousine in front of his own car. “Follow that car, you’ve been dying to meet me so we can, in private. Don’t worry, you won’t get abducted. If I wanted to do that it would’ve been done by now.’’ John started to sweat lightly but nodded again into the camera, put his phone away and started to follow the limousine which was taking off.

John followed the car, they had quickly left the obvious city and ended up somewhere in the country. There was a house, it wasn’t that much like a mansion but it was bigger than a house, just in between the two. He got out and at the door a men in a sharp suit met him, he noticed men and women who looked alike getting out from the car.

“Second floor, first door with the big ‘office’.’’ John nodded and the man opened the door for him and he walked in. It was very fancy, a massive staircase and the interior was sleek marble and black. The interior was rather cozy and felt warm, mostly wooden, he tried not to pay it too much attention as he was definitely jealous and headed up the stairs.

Once inside the office he was met by a person he easily recognized, it was Mycroft. Not only had John obviously looked him up as to know more about Sherlock’s past but recently he had been in the news again. He wore a grey suit with a white dress shirt and had a handkerchief. There was an umbrella at the side of his desk, John awkwardly shut the door and sat down in the chair.

“Doctor John Watson, you emailed my assistant.’’ John nodded. “A program which happened to involve Sherlock, as you are aware, my younger brother. Do tell me, how were you able to meet him and after that, tell me why you would want to know more.’’

John cleared his throat. “Well, it’s this sort of match-making thing through which I met him. It isn’t that important but I was just wondering if there’s something particular about him I could know, he’s rather secretive but I’d just like to know more about him. He wasn’t even willing to tell me he had a brother.’’ Mycroft scoffed. “I’m not surprised.’’

“Well, he’s a ‘consulting detective’ now, it depends how serious you take him though. Initially he wanted to be a pirate.’’ John chuckled. “But tell me Dr. Watson what right you have or what evidence to prove that I can trust you with something the British Government would refer to as classified information?’’ John was rather taken back.

“Well… I dunno, I suppose there’s no reason to distrust me.’’ Mycroft rolled his eyes.

“Yes very convincing. If I gave you money to spy on him, would you take it?’’ John immediately shook his head, of course he wouldn’t because that was morally wrong in his book.

“Good Well, not. Idiotic, you could’ve used it to buy yourself something. Either way, Dr. Watson do come again in a few months when I’ve made a judgement as of what to do with you.’’ John just stared at him for a while but decided it was better to get up and just leave, which is what he did, after saying a goodbye of course.  Once downstairs he got into his car and got a text..

_Were are u?_

John chuckled, it didn’t even have Sherlock’s proper sign but he also felt slight worry, this wasn’t like Sherlock.

_Sorry, wrong person. Typing too fast. –SH_

_Bit more than typos._

_Shut up –SH_

-8-

Like Sherlock has said, once John arrived home he finally had the flat completely to himself which was a nice change. Sherlock wasn’t the worst flatmate but from time to time he was able to really make a mess or forget that John had human needs like food which ever human seemed to need but Sherlock.

John took this opportunity to enjoy the silence and the fact that nothing was happening for now, he hoped it would stay this way for a while. He definitely hoped that in the coming days he would have the rest of the day after work to focus on himself rather than dead bodies. Despite the fact how horrible it obviously is that people had died h found it all quite interesting and no matter how much he didn’t want to admit it liked the adrenaline shot he had received multiple times.

John had decided to just watch telly, he was satisfied with simple things but there was only one problem, the sheer fact of being left alone. Obviously Sherlock had lived here for at least a few months as some of the drawers were filled to the brim which made John more than curious, what weird things were left to discover? What could he find? He felt guilty because of these thoughts, it was rude to go through other people their stuff but at the same time he couldn’t find a reason why Sherlock would care, he didn’t seem to care about much or even anything, so what if John discovered he has a weird obsession with someone? It wouldn’t make much difference.

With those thoughts he got up and randomly opened a drawer and stared at the contents. Ninety percent of it was paper and once he looked at them he realized it had something to do with cases and there was one novel, Shakespeare’s Henry V. John went on, searching through drawers and finding things he hadn’t expected and some he definitely had expected. John decided he would quit after the two because he’s have finished it completely now. Just like he had expected there wasn’t anything as shocking so he was quite confident that it didn’t really matter that he was looking through them, if he hadn’t he had known the exact same but the fact that he has quite a big amount of Shakespeare plays and different poetry which was something John hadn’t expected but liked, he liked to read.

He pulled the drawer open and it was empty but a morocco case. He picked it up and closed the drawer, it wasn’t that heavy, he felt like most of the weight came from the case itself. For a moment he hesitated, he glanced at the clock and at the door before aiming his eyesight back at the case and opened it, a syringe. That was it, a single syringe and John immediately closed it, opened the drawer, threw it back in and closed it. The only emotions he could place were surprise and a tingle of disgust.

“Christ.’’ There was something so unbelievable to it because this was the one thing he hadn’t expected in a billion years, he had to admit he wouldn’t be surprised if he found something like cigarettes but this was a whole new level. It was obvious it wasn’t because this genius somehow needed it and John estimated the chances of it being testosterone or another hormone stimulant unlikely which simply left drugs, most likely cocaine and to John it made no sense whatsoever, he was unsure whether to question it until he saw obvious signs because otherwise he’d have to admit to snooping through his stuff. Conflicted, John decided to try and get a bit of sleep.

-8-

John had gotten up by the time Sherlock came back. He decided not to mention it, for now. He didn’t have a reason to have been looking in his drawers which were obviously a quite personal and private thing and as he stated at the start, John shouldn’t expect something romantic which probably included that he shouldn’t expect Sherlock to reveal everything about himself all of a sudden. John had just gotten up from his nap, it was extremely sort as he had spent at least thirty minutes thinking about what he should do next and only once he had come to a conclusion was he able to fall asleep and stop worrying, he still.

The thing that just surprised him so was is just why and how, how could be answered in multiple ways but he didn’t know enough about Sherlock to make a good conclusion supported by facts and not just what he thought to be most likely. Why was a whole different story though, there were a few reasons that were quite common but none of them seemed to really align with the Sherlock he knew, obviously he also knew he didn’t know the full story and he wouldn’t be surprised if Sherlock’s behaviour was part act, it had to be.

John was surprised that Sherlock seemed no different than the second he left except for the fact that he wore a suit instead of his dressing gown. Beside that there seemed to be no difference and John started to wonder what Sherlock had done in the hours he was gone.

“What’ve you done today?’’ Sherlock ignored the question John had asked and went on to sit in his armchair and pulled out his phone, his eyes scanned over something for a second before he typed a reply and put his phone away again.

“Really? A study in Pink.’’ Sherlock replied and John stared at him for a few seconds before he realized what he meant, _his blog_. John had talked about it to Mike since it was out in the open and Mike in response mentioned a few things he could put in the title, although it really was just one thing and that was pink because of how many Jennifer Wilson actually wore.

“Yeah, there was a lot of pink,’’ John replied with a shrug. “What’d you think of it?’’ He was actually quite curious to see what he thought of it as it was mostly about him and the case.

“It was…’’ There was quite a long pause. “Alright.’’

John raised his eyebrows. “Is that your polite way to say it was shit?’’

“Sort of.’’ John rolled his eyes.

“You could’ve just said that. I know I’m not exactly a writer but a friend of mine suggested it and I thought it wasn’t too bad of an idea. Let’s be honest,’’ John said with a shrug, he didn’t think it was good literature but he didn’t think it was that bad, it was probably one of the best things he had written and he imagined Mike would tell him if it was shit but then again he imagined Sherlock had very different standards.

“You said it yourself, there are people dead. It’s not supposed to be a drama novel.’’ Sherlock commented and John thought about it for a few seconds, it was true he had added flair of drama especially once he started to thinking about how he formulated his sentences. Still, it wasn’t that dramatic it was coverage of how the case went from his perspective, that was it at its core.

“It wasn’t that dramatic, it wasn’t like I’ve written something like Twilight.’’ John said and Sherlock gave him a confused look which made John burst out in laughter, he had noticed Sherlock could be a little oblivious to things but this was a new level, John started to wonder what Sherlock knew and what he didn’t.

“Oh this is just rich, although I also wish I didn’t know Twilight. Either way, this is supposed to be in your favour.’’ John admitted, he really wished he didn’t know Twilight, it wasn’t a pleasure. Sherlock continued with his stare as though John had just claimed the utmost ridiculous thing that there was.

_Does it matter? I had something to do which is all I wanted._

John started to ponder this as Sherlock shook his head and moved on from the whole blog post. Maybe that was the reason for the syringe, _boredom_. Yet it seemed like such a stupid thing, when people are bored they decide to take a nap or watch telly, or just anything they could think of. They don’t take drugs, or are very unlikely to. Then again John knew that Sherlock definitely wasn’t like anyone he had met before.

“Well, if you’re just going to sit there confused about things everyone knows about stay there in silence because I’ve got work to do.’’ John said as he picked up his laptop and decided to sit at the kitchen table so he would sit at a normal height and wouldn’t have to put the laptop in his lap. Sherlock didn’t respond for a few seconds, seemingly lost in his thoughts.

John started to type away behind his laptop; in the meanwhile Sherlock felt his phone buzz again and sighed in annoyance as he pulled the conversation up again. He typed a reply without looking although he had to admit he was both intrigued that John had gone to seek out Mycroft and surprised that Mycroft had decided to text him about it as he usually claimed he was too busy becoming the British government.

Either way he didn’t pay it too much attention although he had to admit he was impressed at how John was either very determined to find out things about him or just stumbled upon it and made it out alive from Mycroft’s mansion. He picked out a book from the shelf and decided to just read for now, there was nothing to do but he was still satisfied enough or at least his mind was still busy enough to keep going.

A silence formed between them but it wasn’t awkward, it was peaceful like the two of them had come to an agreement without saying anything. John was working on some paperwork and other things he was passed along whilst Sherlock kept busy, sort of, with a book he’s read a few times already but it was merely a way of looking productive whilst he was thinking and from time to time did read a page.

-8-

Sherlock’s eyes snapped open when he heard the door open. He got up from the couch only to notice John absent or at least there was no sound coming from the kitchen and he was nowhere else in sight. Mrs. Hudson was smiling in the door frame and she seemed rather surprised but also happy.

“Why are you here?’’ Sherlock asked.

“I heard nothing for a few hours and got kind of worried, you’re almost always shouting or whatever so I almost got concerned when there was no sound.’’ Mrs. Hudson admitted and Sherlock realized he did make a lot of noise, he usually spoke his thoughts aloud, otherwise he was experimenting, playing violin or doing something else that made sound.

“Well, yes we’re fine.’’ He pointed out despite that he obviously didn’t know how John was but he assumed that he was sleeping and it was hard to get that wrong. Mrs. Hudson gave him a look for a few seconds but after that left and shut the door again. Sherlock glanced down to his watch, it was just 2 AM which wasn’t particularly late for him as sometimes he accidentally went a day or two and otherwise even longer with a few naps.

He decided it was better sleep or at least take a nap for now. He went to his room and for a few seconds stopped at the door. From the other door he heard a few sounds, it wasn’t too loud but it was obvious grunting and moaning, he imagined it was likely John having a nightmare and in a pool of sweat. It made him think at how okay John seemed to be with just having shot a man, Sherlock had to admit he was rather convinced he was actually all right with that, of course not fine with his strong moral compass but it wasn’t the worst thing as John knew that was a ‘bad’ person, what else could cause him nightmares?

Sherlock dismissed the thought and went inside his room, he wasn’t planning on getting attached, this was supposed to be a thing he did to just make Mrs. Hudson happy and to have someone keep him from shooting the walls to shreds but he realized he was starting to care and he was unsure whether or not it was good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if I've addressed this already but before you aggressively start commenting about how people might be OOC let me remind you that I am just trying to write how I would interpret them and that they'll definitely be slightly different from the show because they're a few years younger and a few things haven't happened yet or won't happen at all which obviously change a person. For example the fact that John's a medical student who just got his PhD but isn't in the military so that changes him a bit.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, this has slow updates because I just have a hard time writing because I want dialogue to feel natural and also because I tend to procrastinate and fall into an existential crises about each day. Also, ever since my break started I haven't been feeling too great so this is also a little short.

John awoke in the middle of the night, he immediately did his best to steady out his breathing and send his mind to a different place rather than focusing on the nightmare he just had. Because of this his mind wondered off to Sherlock, specifically the idea of him taking drugs to get kicks but when he started to really think about it and who Sherlock is it didn’t seem as wild, there were wilder things he could imagine.

He decided to get up and headed into the kitchen and made himself a glass of water. He considered going to the bathroom to take a shower but he quickly realized it was just past 3 and because of that decided it was better to take a shower in the morning rather than in the middle of the night.

He drank it all in one big gulp and noticed he was cooling down and his breathing had regulated by now which made him feel slightly better. Once he started to think he had to admit he missed the safety of the gun despite knowing that nothing could happen, it somehow just felt good to have something to protect him even though there was nothing, _it just felt good_.

After a few moments of silence by himself only with the silent rain falling down onto the empty London streets he got up and stared at the empty glass before putting it into the sink and going back to his bedroom. Better to catch a bit of sleep even though he didn’t have to work today, he still wanted to get a bit of sleep to look normal and if he was right this was the fifth day and there would be some person coming over. He had to admit he was curious as to how that would go but decided to not let it trouble his mind, with that he fell asleep.

-8-

John woke up to the sound of the violin, it sounded soft and very graceful which made John smile, he had a few Clarinet lessons but never bothered to learn an instrument but he always liked the sound of them and sometimes wished he would give learning them a shot but despite just being in his twenties he still felt too old for it. He felt far too old for a lot of stuff despite still being quite young.

He dressed up and started to think about what he was going to do today, he was free which wasn’t something he had been used to a lot, ever since he started Uni his days were filled with studying and in the weekends he had been working his DIY job for a while and otherwise he was someplace else, most likely visiting his sister.

Now, having a completely free day he was unsure to spend it. He hadn’t seen his sister in quite a while but then again they’d also been fighting a lot lately, he knew he was far too concerned and had no right to be and that she was older than him and obviously more responsible and he definitely knew he had to make it up to her.

“I don’t suggest taking that mug.’’ Sherlock responded as John walked into the kitchen. He stared at Sherlock and then glanced at the mug which had a suspicious muddy yellow colour inside of it. “Experiment.’’

“Of course, yeah,’’ John was wondering what it could possibly be but he decided it was better not to ask, he probably didn’t want to know which was a battle against his curiosity he constantly fought, especially when it came to Sherlock himself, he wanted to know the man’s deepest secrets but he also thought that was privacy invasion and he should only know them if he chooses to reveal them.

“I’ll be off today, visiting my sister.’’ John said and Sherlock didn’t seem to notice it as he kept swaying across the room, his fingers on the stringer, but he did notice it and made a mental note of John’s absence. “So yeah, I’ll be gone for most of the day probably.’’ He finished as he started to eat cereal, he had to admit he enjoyed the sound. Despite not knowing anything about the violin he was convinced that Sherlock was a very apt player for it and had likely been practicing for many years which made everything sound fluid, combined with the mysterious and intriguing tone of what he was playing John almost wished he’d play it more.

John suddenly realized that he actually was in something that was a social experiment even though it didn’t feel like it, rather it felt like it was just sharing a flat and testing his boundaries, a lot.

The two of them took the silence as a way to collect their thoughts and focus on what they would be doing. John was coming up with a proper apology for his sister whilst still hinting at trying to take care of her problem whilst Sherlock was thinking what time span John would be gone in and what he could do to fill those moments.

-8-

John stood awkwardly in front of the door of his sister’s apartment. She was getting the door but seemed to have gotten busy with something different now. He had decided to get her chocolate because flowers felt wrong and she really liked dark chocolate and he didn’t know what else gift would be appropriate when making up with someone.

The door was opened and Harry smiled politely at him. Her hair was a bit darker, closing more in on brown instead of his dirty blonde. They had identical eyes though. Harry had a bit of a sharper face and was just a few inches taller but they resembled each other quite well, once or twice they had gotten mixed up as twins by people who didn’t notice the age different between them, Harry was five years older and whilst that wasn’t as obvious now, it was when they were kids and still in secondary school.

“Look, I’m sorry about all the stuff I’ve said, you know that I’m bad with words and forming sentences without going from one thing to another,’’ she chuckled “but yeah, I just want to apologize. So, sorry for all the stuff I’ve said.’’ Harry just chuckled, took the chocolate and put it down, and hugged him in response, John realized this was the best outcome and was very happy she accepted his apology after some stuff he had said to her.

“Come in, you know I like chocolate but I can’t eat all of this stuff so I might force you to eat some of it, you kind of need it you’re looking surprisingly skinny. What happened to the serious intense training,’’ She stopped and started to do an imitation “What happened to the ‘I can’t hang out because self-training for ten hours and building up muscles for tough stuff I already have’ John?’’ He laughed and couldn’t believe he had been this awful.

“Suppose that just kind of faded. Am I though? I didn’t really notice.’’ John admitted, he hung his jacket up and stared down at the shirt he was wearing and noticed the muscles he had half a year ago were definitely starting to fade but he didn’t really mind, he didn’t necessarily need a lot of muscles he just needed to keep his cardio up and remain healthy, he didn’t need to know any martial arts or whatever although he wouldn’t be surprised if he discovered that a random skill like that would be useful whenever he’s hanging out with Sherlock.

“Well, I like you better this way. Seems you’ve turned more human. How’s the job been?’’ She asked as she turned on the tv and pulled the packaging off of the chocolate and broke the bar in half, giving one half to John who accepted it and realized he hadn’t had chocolate in a very long time.

“It’s good, busy but it’s good. Nice and calm.’’ He responded.

“You joined this sort of thing right? Something with guys and girls pairing up. Tell me how that’s been because I remember mike pushing you really hard to fill in bi, which we both know you are.’’ She said and he shrugged, it was true that she and Mike pressed him really hard to do that despite that he also knew he wasn’t completely straight.

“It’s been one hell of a ride. I uh, yeah I got paired with this guy, he’s called Sherlock Holmes.’’ Harry interrupted him. “Oh yeah! I read your blog post. It was kind of rubbish when it came to describing some stuff but overall it was pretty good. So, have you confessed your love already?’’ she said eagerly, John shot her a look.

“Well, he’s a recluse, alone and probably doesn’t like most people so no, and second of all I don’t love him like that. Sure he’s been a dick sometimes but mostly nice, he’s a surprisingly okay friend. But yeah, we solved a crime and I shot a man.’’

“Are you okay with that? I mean there’s a difference between accidentally hitting a man in his leg and killing one.’’ Harry asked worried.

“I-I’m fine. I promise I’m doing okay. Haven’t felt more alive before.’’ Harry appeared to be deep in thought before smiling at him.

“That Sherlock really changed you didn’t he? You’ve only known him for a week. Are you sure you don’t love him?’’ She asked with a grin and John blushed furiously and sent her a glare, it was still a lot more sensitive for him than for her.

“I don’t. I’m not going to say it again.’’

“Oh shut up, I’m your older sister and I know you better than you know yourself. I didn’t understand the excitement that was clear in his pale icy blue eyes which seemed stoic up until this point yet now seemed warmer and filled with excitement for a reason so wrong. Do I need to quote more of what you’ve written; you can look it up yourself. You wrote it!’’ She said in response.

“Oh give me a break.’’ John said with a sigh and there was a silence for a while but eventually Harry spoke again, coming with agreement terms.

“I’ll shut up if you keep writing in that blog and telling me what’s been going on. I don’t care about the confidential stuff cause I’m not interested in that stuff and you know that, just the little domestics.’’ John gave her a look but nodded and they both turned their attention to the television. John had to admit he might’ve gone a bit romanticizing what had happened despite that he was the one who called to out as terrible, still he didn’t know why he had done it either but it were minor things he didn’t feel the need to change.

-8-

“Sherlock, hey I was wondering-‘’ John stopped his sentence as he stood inside their flat. There was a man sitting on the couch, which was filled with papers, who was conversing with Sherlock who was sitting in one of their armchairs. Sherlock seemed absent minded until the moment he noticed John had come back.

“Right, uh.. who are you?’’ John asked as neither of them spoke.

“You must be John,’’ John gave a nodded and looked at Sherlock in search for an answer “I haven’t met you before or have the chance to introduce myself. I’m Mark. You might’ve forgotten but our idea was to have weekly check-ups on the people, how they were acting, coping and so on. So, if you could please sit down.’’ John nodded, shook the man’s hand and went on to sit in the armchair opposing Sherlock.

“Right, so Sherlock and I have just gone over what has happened in the past days and it seems to be quite a lot but both of you seem to be coping quite well. Actually, we’ve already gone over most things so I was just wondering, of both of you, how is it going with your mental health? I’m not asking either of you to confess your darkest feelings but just a general coverage, do you feel worse? The same? Or even better?’’ John gave a glance at Sherlock who took it upon himself to first go.

“The same, nothing more or less although one might say I’ve been surprisingly nice to him so you could put that as better if you wish.’’ Sherlock responded in the same tone as ever. The man wrote a few keywords down and then turned his head to John.

“I’ve been doing fine. Probably the same as well although I’ve never had this much excitement so if you count that as good than yes, I’m doing better than before but otherwise you can put in the same. It depends, I’m a doctor but not a mental health expert.’’ John rambled on.

“Right, that was all. I’m sad that I’ve only known you for such a short time but I’m sure your partner has been able to explain what has been going on rather well.’’ Mark said, he shook John and Sherlock their hands a last time before going away and likely to turn in the result. John decided not to ask what the questions were or what Sherlock had answered because John was both amused at the idea but also frightened and decided it was better not to know.

“How long was I gone for?’’ John asked, more to himself than to Sherlock. Only then did he glance at his watch and realize he had spent four or more hours at his sister’s watching movies. “Wow, that’s longer than I expected. What’ve you been doing all this time?’’ He turned around, Sherlock seemed somewhat off, his attention constantly fleeting which appeared to John as though he was excited or maybe even troubled.

“Not much, some reading. You were wondering?’’ He replied and John realized he had completely forgotten it. He started to think but realized the harder he thought the worse it got and the more he started to trail off. He shook his head. “Don’t remember. Either way, how was he?’’ John decided to switch up the subject, he was curious how Sherlock handles him since John had only known him for a minute or so, he didn’t seem too bad.

“Fine, mostly boring. He seemed rather surprised at first and went on with everything with hesitation but eventually he eased into it, he was almost finished and then you came and then he left. Quite simple.’’ Sherlock responded and John nodded, he started to wonder if Sherlock was as rude as he usually could be and scared the lad with deductions which wouldn’t surprise him, he really had to give Sherlock a bit of proper manners and at least make him a bit less rude when there were strangers whom had done nothing wrong.

“Right.’’ A comfortable silence grew, John had gotten up to make diner because he was starting to get hungry and decided he should at least make something for Sherlock because he was confident he probably didn’t eat in a while except for the small things John forced him to eat so he wouldn’t die of starvation.

-8-

John woke up in the night, he sighed as after trying for thirty minutes he was quite convinced he wasn’t going to fall asleep anymore, at least it was somewhat close to 6 am, it was two hours earlier, which was the time he usually woke up. He sipped from his glass of water and pulled his laptop towards him which was resting in his chair, he was lazy, and turned his phone on.

_Interesting relations you have Dr. Watson._

He stared at the text for a while, it was an unknown number but both from the formal title and the sentence itself he was quite convinced it was Mycroft, he knew a lot of people but not that many had his phone number and none of them would address him with the title of Dr. Watson, it was either Watson or just John, depended on which they preferred.

He sighed and decided to type a response whilst unlocking his laptop and going through his email.

_I suppose you could say that, why bother contacting me though?_

John didn’t feel the need for either initials or a name as he knew with almost a thousand percent it was Mycroft and he wouldn’t even be surprised if he was watching him through some camera somewhere, seems like the thing Mycroft would definitely do. He replied to a few emails and deleted a lot of them which were unimportant, spam or others that weren’t useful for him.

_Just curiosity. Mind you, it’s quite early and I would suggest getting some sleep, it wouldn’t help if you would end up sleep deprived._

_Well, thank you for your care I suppose,_

A few seconds John went without reply.

_Don’t mention it._


End file.
